non-Western World Research Articles

Decolonial Artificial Intelligence; Algorithmic Fairness in Alignment with Turkish and Islamic Values

Research works on topics such as; Fairness in Agreement with European Values: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on AI Regulation or Decolonial AI Alignment: Openness, Viśesa -Dharma and Including Excluded Knowledges, generated the motivation to search for Artificial intelligence (AI) alignment with Turkish and Islamic Values. The driving force to this research work is the fact that all of the algorithmic decision-making systems include bias to some extend and the non-western world needs to construct its own value-based technological and sociological development models since there is not much belief left in the so-called international justice or the so-called democratic values. This research includes examination of brief information about the fundamentals of big data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence. Importance of thick data and digital anthropology is emphasized. Misuse and abuse AI has been identified as one of the most important challenges. Vygotsky’s arguments on social learning, social construction of technology theory and worldview theory may provide some of the arguments to construct the idea of an AI approach may be developed in accordance with Turkish and Islamic values. Decolonial AI arguments and fairness in AI approaches have also been utilized to empower our argument. Lastly, brief information on Turkish and Islamic values were presented, limited to the scope of this research.

Waldorf early childhood education: from the West to the East

ABSTRACT The philosophy of Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy, fundamental to Waldorf education, provides an alternative view on education to that in the non-western world. The article illustrates a rhizomatic, informal diffusion of ‘alternative education’ in contrast to ‘policy borrowing’ in education, reporting how Waldorf education and Anthroposophy are regarded and operated in an East Asian context. An initial exploratory study of this provides insider perspectives of ‘knowledgeable’ practitioners in Waldorf early childhood centres in East Asia, regarding their understanding and practices of Anthroposophy and its three key concepts: the Four Temperaments; the Seven-Year [development] cycle; and the Twelve Senses. Participants identified key features of Waldorf education: holistic development of the child; nature relatedness; modelling and imitation; and contextualisation and localisation. Many features of Waldorf education ran counter to significant values and practices in schooling in the local culture. The paper indicates how to reconcile these, and makes recommendations for further research.

Intercivilizational Interaction between the United States and the Non-Western World (The Civilizational Identity of Russia in the Context of S. Huntington’s Concept of the Clash of Civilizations)

The article offers a retrospective analysis of S. Huntington’s concept of the clash of civilizations, examining the scholar’s predictions concerning the development scenarios of Russian-Ukrainian relations of the post-Soviet period in the context of wars along the fault lines between civilizations. It characterizes the structure of civilizations, patterns of intercivilizational interaction, and specifics of the identity crisis manifestations in cleft and torn countries. The paper concludes that the predicted conflicting scenario of Russian-Ukrainian relations caused by the confrontation between Western and Orthodox (in S. Huntington's terminology) civilizations is coming true. In the civilizational context, the article explores approaches to deterring Russia, reflected in the documents of RAND Corporation analysts and a lecture by CIA Director W. Burns, delivered at the Ditchley Foundation. Considering Huntington’s provisions about the core role of the Russian state for the Orthodox civilization, as well as the centuries-old tear of identity and public consciousness of Russia, the author believes that the most important task of the state identity politics is nationalizing the Russian elite, overcoming the ideological gap between the nationally-oriented "deep people" and the Western-centric elite groups.

Positions of China and Brazil On De-Dollarization of International Economic Relations and Prospects for Creating a New World Currency

The paper is devoted to the consideration of the PRC and Brazil stances on the de-dollarization of international economic relations and the expansion of the practice of international payments in national currencies. The use of currencies other than the dollar is seen a logical starting point towards liberating the economic relations of the non-Western world from the pressure of the collective West. This pressure, implemented largely due to the fact, that dollar maintains the function of a world currency (according to K. Marx — “world money”), is aimed to tie economic policies and practices of US counterparties, including China and Brazil, to the American currency as a means of manipulating the world economic interests of other countries. The issue of creating international currency units alternative to the dollar is increasingly being raised in political and academic communities. China and Brazil are members of the BRICS forum, which currency’s creation is widely discussed at the international level. The author believes that the likelihood of creating such a currency is now low due to the peculiarities of the global financial and political situation, as well as the insufficient degree of integration within the BRICS itself. If the creation of a new currency (within the framework of a non-Western international structure) begins, then one of the ways of this is the formation of a currency basket in which the yuan can receive the greatest weight. However, the most achievable way of dedollarization seems a broad transition to the use of national currencies in global trade, investment and lending. The next step may be to create not a currency, but a special international unit of account, what is easier to do.

Historical Depictions of the Brain: The Origins from the Non-Western World.

Any written work concerning the history of neuroanatomy would be difficult to imagine without acknowledging the pioneering works of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camillo Golgi. Cajal improved upon Golgi's staining technique at the turn of the 20th century. He implemented it to deliver the world's first incredibly detailed visualizations of cellular networks of the nervous system. Dating further back to the 15th century, most students of neuroanatomy or of the philosophy of science are familiar with René Decartes' depiction of mind-body dualism which illustrates the passing of visual information to the brain. These illustrations (i.e., mostly Cajal's) have gone on to significantly influence future research, commonly featured as visual aids in neuroscience presentations. Like most of the historical depictions of the brain, including medieval illustrations of trepanning, these drawings are of western European origin. Little, if any work has attempted to compile or assess historical depictions of the brain from outside of the western world. It is very likely that non-western historical depictions of the brain exist, but are less popularized and have been scarce in the circulating historical literature. Thus, more historical investigations are required to balance these views for a complete historical lens on neuroanatomy. Since early civilizations existed far across the globe, it is likely that depictions of the nervous system have existed before the aforementioned scholars who make up the mainstream approach to neuroanatomy history education. The present work aims to introduce students and instructors of neuroscience, and particularly neuroanatomy, to other early illustrated neuroanatomical works which may be less popularized. Additionally, this assessment seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the historical emergence of neuroscience and more specifically, neuroanatomy. This article attempts to start this conversation, utilizing what are thought to be the first modern neuroanatomical analyses of some of the cited illustrations from the non-western world.

Status Hierarchies and Stigma Shifting in International Relations

Abstract How do states as social actors cope with stigma-induced status anxiety? I propose the concept of “stigma shifting” as a way in which status-anxious states overcompensate for their stigma-induced inferiority and reaffirm their place in the world: by seeking identification with higher-status states and differentiation from lower-status states. In identifying with the desired group of states, stigmatized states engage in approval-seeking behavior and reaffirm their in-group status in areas where they feel discredited. In differentiating themselves from the undesired group, stigmatized states engage in distinction-seeking behavior, claiming their superiority over this “lesser” group in areas that gave rise to their status anxiety in the first place. Stigma shifting, in other words, allows a stigmatized state to take the role of a stigmatizer. To demonstrate the concept's depth and analytical utility, I draw on the case of East Asia in three disparate issue areas: colonial redress, nuclear disaster, and international order making. Japan, stigmatized in all three areas, has reaffirmed its status by shifting the stigma onto its significant but “lesser” others: China and Korea. Ultimately, stigma shifting solidifies status hierarchies in the world—not just the hierarchy as represented by the “Western” dominance of international society but also the regional hierarchies of the non-Western world.

Nakba and the US-Israel Imperial Regime

Abstract The US-Israeli genocide is best understood as the end game of empire, the culmination of failed Anglo-American and Zionist policies in the Middle East and, indeed, virtually the entire non-Western world. It is the outcome of a US-sponsored apartheid system in Israel, largely carried out by the IDF and other militarist forces in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and Israel itself and funded by American financial assistance and weapons transfers to the Israeli army. The threats of multipolarity to US/NATO hegemony, Britain being the major junior partner, pushed the Trump and Biden administrations, along with the British Tories and post-Corbyn Labour Party, to support de facto the “final solution” in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. This article puts the Israeli assault on the people of Gaza, the Hamas-led attack on October 7 being the main pretext, in historical perspective. It argues that it is a logical sequence of the pre-war Zionist idea of an exclusive Jewish state and US and UK post-war power politics in the Middle East and in two imperial states’ respective domestic electoral politics.

Silence, Space and Absence in Conrad’s Works: Western and Non-Western Worlds, by John G. Peters

<i>Silence, Space and Absence in Conrad’s Works: Western and Non-Western Worlds</i>, by John G. Peters

Vietnamese landscape from the French women’s perspective in Marguerite Duras’ novel

The paper analyzes the representation of the Vietnamese landscape in the novel of Marguerite Duras, especially from the perspective of the female character. The image of Vietnam through Duras’s work has not only common characteristics of the tropics but also unique, unmixed features, which are marked by places imprinted in the characters’ memories. From the perspective of the French female character, the Vietnamese landscape participates in the process of experiencing a foreign land as well as the process of inner discovery of the character. Identifying the typical hot climate of the tropics in Vietnam will provoke an exploration of the monotonous, stifling life of the French woman with the status of poor white people in the colony. Climate, land, water, flora and fauna, and architecture all carry memories. These memories evoke the image of a non-Western world that is constantly changing, filled with vitality.

The Geoeconomic Turn in International Trade, Investment, and Technology

This thematic issue brings together a set of articles that empirically map the state of the ongoing geoeconomic turn in the global political economy from an international political economy (IPE) perspective. Changes in the modus operandi of the global political economy urge the development of new conceptual and theoretical tools to grasp the new geoeconomic reality of world affairs. At the same time, the contemporary study of geoeconomics remains theory-centred and focused on its security dimension, thereby underplaying the empirical nuances and variegated aspects of these developments. We therefore make the case for an empirically grounded study of concrete cases and instances of the geoeconomic turn, which can then deliver insights for further theory-building. Likewise, many aspects of the geoeconomic turn cannot be explained by security logics only, but have political economy roots that need to be brought to the foreground. Our thematic issue excavates these dynamics across four key challenges for the global economy: the role of states and firms in a geoeconomic world; global technological competition; the green transition; and implications of the geoeconomic turn for the non-Western world. Collectively, the contributions demonstrate that the geoeconomic turn is only starting to concretely (and partially) materialize and that these transformations, in many cases, tend to replicate existing power structures that prioritize capital(ist) interests related to profit-maximisation over societal interests, ecological sustainability, or social equity. We close by delineating prospects for further IPE research into the ongoing geoeconomic turn in the global political economy.

Stosunki międzynarodowe Chińskiej Republiki Ludowej z państwami Afryki w erze Xi Jipinga – dynamika, istota, trendy

CHINA–AFRICA RELATIONS IN THE ERA OF XI JINPING: THEIR DYNAMICS, ESSENCE, AND TRENDS The research objective of this article is to highlight the evolution of China’s policy, under Xi Jinping’s rule, towards Africa during the emergence of the new global international order, which divided the world in to the Western and non-Western worlds, as well as to illustrate the dynamics, scale, and scope of this policy. The research hypothesis is that China’s relations with Africa have intensified over the past 25 years. The hypothesis is of both the objective and subjective dimensions. In addition to the economic and political motivations that determined China’s policy towards the African continent in 2000-2016, geostrategic conditions, post-2016, related to the redefinition of the current international order should also be taken into account. Beijing and Xi Jinping perceive Africa, as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have demonstrated, as an important element in building an international order alternative to that of the West’s.

Examining Employee Buy-In for Organizational Change: A Structural Equation Model

Abstract Regardless of the prevalence of change, getting employees on board is hard to achieve. While the investigation of leadership and change readiness has been done continuously, the examination of staff involvement in change and working culture, particularly of the non-western world, has been less appreciated. This article addresses this gap by analysing the connection between employee buy-in, trust, relationship, and task-oriented culture. The main data was gathered from 214 respondents. They are employees at a higher education institution in Cambodia and have experienced a technology-driven change recently. The structural equation model reveals significant relationships between trust and working relationship as well as task-oriented culture, highlighting the pivotal role of these cultural attributes in fostering trust and facilitating buy-in for change. The findings contribute to Social Exchange Theory by showcasing the reciprocal exchange between the employee relationship and support in organizational changes and portray a missing trust among Cambodian employees. Recommendations were drawn from the findings for the betterment of change practices by the managers and practitioners.

Can China and Russia as ‘Civilisation States’ Emerge as Security Providers in West Asia?

In the recent past, the two self-affirmed ‘civilisation states’, China and Russia, have actively sought to play a role in peace-building initiatives in West Asia and North Africa. The China-brokered rapprochement of Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023 within the framework of its ‘quasi-mediation diplomacy’, and the Russian proposal for a ‘Collective Security Concept for the Persian Gulf’ in 2019, demonstrate the two states’ proactive approach to bringing stability to the region which was perceived as an Anglo-American area of influence. Today, the idea of Western hegemony in the world, but more specifically in West Asia is challenged by the emergence of non-Western powers like China, Russia, India, and Turkey. The failure of the American interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and attempts at peacebuilding in West Asia have put the spotlight on waning Western influence in the region. As the US and Europe try to defend the cherished values of liberal internationalism and European cosmopolitanism, China and Russia have reinvented themselves as ‘civilisation states’ and challenge the Western values that had formed the bedrock of global affairs in the last century. Each of them has tried to put forth a model of engagement which draws inspiration from their own cultural and civilisational antecedents. This is a legitimate way for China and Russia to distinguish them from the discredited Western model and popularise the idea of an alternative to the outdated Western one. There is a growing interest in alternate models of engagement in the non-Western world and consequently in support of Chinese and Russian interventions. It is against this backdrop that this paper will explore how China and Russia as ‘civilisation states’ have attempted to build peace and stability in West Asia. The paper will attempt to explore the definitional contours of the ‘civilisation state’ which sets it apart from the idea of the ‘nation-state’ which is rooted in European history and philosophy and is often understood as a Western concept. Subsequently, the paper will attempt to understand the motivations that have driven the two countries to adopt this approach. Next, it will juxtapose the Western model of peacebuilding in the region and underscore the reasons for its apparent failure. The paper will then attempt to explore the possibility of developing a conflict resolution model based on the approaches that China and Russia have adopted and, finally, conclude by examining reasons why this model could work should the two states decide to work together to resolve conflicts and build peace in West Asia.

Relational self and farmworker law reform: the case of Indonesia

This article celebrates and explores Keebet Benda-Beckmann’s important work on the centrality of “relationality” in legal pluralism, in Indonesia in particular, and more generally in the non-Western world. We aim to extend Benda-Beckmann’s argument on the centrality of relationality and legal pluralism into our analysis of an urgent project of Indonesian law reform: farmworker protection. We make an interpretive claim on the status of “relational self” as an organizing idea in the Indonesian legal consciousness. To build that interpretive claim, we provide qualitative context drawn from our field research in two farmworker communities in rural West Java, Indonesia. With the situation of Indonesian farmworkers as its case study, this paper presents how relational self-construal can be a starting point for the introduction of a greater access to justice. To build its argument, the paper first identifies relational self as the Indonesian farmworkers’ central notion of self. Ultimately, the paper develops a model of law reform proposal that takes relational self as its overarching supposition.

How the Terms “Spirituality” and “Secularism” Appeared and Have Worked in Modern India

This paper examines the usage of English terms related to the important religious concepts of “spirituality” and “secularism” in and around modern India, employing the simple DH (Digital Humanities) approach of “counting.” The seemingly opposite terms “spirituality” and “secularism” are both essential key notions for the religiosity of the modern world and India, particularly. Like opposite sides of the same coin, they form a conceptual pair that expresses modern universalism and have functioned to mediate and bridge differences in culture and values. Despite the importance, however, scholars have yet to examine how and when the terms themselves have been used thoroughly. This paper explores the usage of these terms in some English-language texts in and around modern India, focusing on the changes in the frequency of their use in the online databases of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda and the Times of India. These examinations show that these English words were used in more unique and active ways in India than is often assumed. The modern use of these terms was not necessarily due to Western influence but was, at least partly, developed by modern Indians. In some cases, the Indian usage may have even preceded and influenced the new appearance of these terms in the West. This paper suggests that what we perceive as “modern” is at least partly the product of the agency and participation of the non-Western world, including India.

The Fantastic East: Carnivalesque Public Space and Civil Sphere in Brazilian National Identity Building

Abstract In this article, I bring together the theory of the civil sphere and the concept of carnivalesque public space to analyze the function of symbols and discourses about the non-Western world in the construction of national identity in Brazil. I argue that the carnivalesque public space contributes to broadening and reinforcing solidarity in the civil sphere by de-nationalizing national identity. The orientalist representations that took place in Salvador’s carnival consolidated the “oriental” imaginary as an important dimension of the incipient national identity building process, as well as highlighted the ambivalences and discontinuities of the mosaic of symbolic references associated to it. This fantastic representation of the East corresponded to a particular expectation of meaning: the aesthetic contours of the national-popular boundaries in Brazil and its sense of belonging. The article analyses how national identities are created through symbolic references that are both within and beyond its own borders.

Invisibility and Hypervisibility: Rabindranath Tagore and His Self-Translated English Works in the Western World

Abstract Translation inherently involves grappling with cultural, power, and knowledge dynamics. It encompasses the shaping of ideas by those in control and the influence of translation on the perception of cultures, peoples, and texts. While translation can empower marginalized voices, it may also reinforce power imbalances by favoring dominant languages and cultures in colonial contexts. Translation is a crucial instrument in shaping, reflecting, and challenging global power dynamics. Lawrence Venuti classifies translation strategies into domestication and foreignization, associating the former with Anglo-American hegemony and the latter as a challenge to Western cultural dominance. He suggests that these strategies result in different outcomes for translators’ visibility: domesticating translators go unnoticed, while foreignizing translators emerge from obscurity. However, the translation practices in colonial and postcolonial contexts demonstrate that Venuti’s binary categories may oversimplify the complexities of translation activities. Rabindranath Tagore’s self-translation from Bengali into English complicates Venuti’s theory, as both domesticating and foreignizing translations coexist. Tagore, as a translator, and his English audiences engage in both strategies. His foreignization goal, introducing Indian culture to the West, is achieved through domesticating his poetry for acceptance. Simultaneously, his English readers adopt both approaches, connecting Tagore’s writing to the English literary tradition while exoticizing differences. This results in Tagore transitioning from invisibility to hypervisibility, but within two decades, he fades into obscurity in the Western world. Tagore’s experience underscores that pursuing visibility exclusively or relying solely on foreignizing translation strategy cannot effectively challenge Western hegemony. Instead, efforts should be made to safeguard against the pervasive influence of imperial power in the cultural exchange between the non-Western (English-speaking) world and the West (English-speaking world).

Международной академии сравнительного права — 100 лет!

The article describes the formation of Comparative Law in the 19th century. and its main coordinating research body, the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL), founded in 1924 in Geneva. The international congresses preceding this event in Paris (1900) and St. Louis (1904) marked the beginning of international scientific cooperation, which later, within the framework of the IASP, took the form of regular scientific congresses held every 4 years. The topics of these meetings are regularly updated, although some topics (primarily related to specific areas of law) may be repeated. Comparativists from Russia, headed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences T. Ya. Khabrieva, are also represented in the IASP. The Academy’s goals for the future are to better take into account the realities of the non-Western world in its research activities, abandoning Eurocentrism, and expand comparative legal issues through the methods of Comparative Government and Comparative Political Science.

Between West and Non-West - Turkey at a Crossroad of Geostrategic Choice

Historically, the Republic of Turkey is one of the few states in the Middle East, in a civilizational sense, located between East and West. As time has passed since a number of unsuccessful attempts to integrate into Western institutions and with the beginning of geopolitical changes in the international arena, Turkey has made a “pivot to the East”. Considering the increasing role of the Non-West within the framework of the formation of a polycentric system of international relations, the study of Turkey as one of the key centers of forces of our time, as well as the identification of its characteristics, eastern and western features, is of particular relevance. The purpose of the study is to examine the civilizational characteristics of modern Turkey. By applying civilizational approach, Turkey’s position of a “middle state” was revealed, which has both Western and Eastern features, but is increasingly gravitating towards the non-Western world. At the same time, amid the ideology of “neo-Ottomanism” implemented by the current leadership and the increasing role of the ideological and value factor, Western features are gradually fading away, remaining only in the form of official secularism and stable ties with Western institutions. While the Turkish orientality, along with unofficial islamization, have a clearer image. Turkey develops in progressive-regressive cycles, where the Western cycle is replaced by the Eastern and vice versa. However, the West is systematically ceasing to be a symbol of progress. The authors conclude that the non-Western path of development is the most promising for modern Turkey, however, with the condition that eastern development will not be moderated by Islamist circles and supporters of political Islam.

Israel in the Context of the “New Bipolarity”

The study is dedicated to the main guidelines of the foreign policy of the State of Israel in the context of the current transformation of the world order. Before the start of the special military operation, despite a fairly strong strategic alliance with the United States, Israel pursued a pragmatic foreign policy and maintained mutually beneficial bilateral relations with the leading powers of the non-Western world - especially Russia, China and India. However, the sharp escalation of the situation in the Palestinian territories in October 2023 put Israel in front of an existential choice under the conditions of the emerging new bipolarity, and this choice was made in favor of the United States and its NATO allies. Now the official rhetoric in Israel has become consonant with the one that prevailed during the period of the severed relations between Russia and Israel. Nevertheless, in formulating policies where Russian and Israeli positions do not coincide, both sides continue to coordinate all actions within the framework of a joint dialogue. The article focuses on the main issues on which Russia and Israel differ: Ukrainian, Iranian, and Palestinian factors. China and India occupy a special place among Israel’s foreign policy priorities. The importance of these countries for the Jewish state will be increasing due to the inevitable isolationist tendencies in the region, which are growing against the backdrop of the worsening Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The article examines the main trends in Israel’s relations with some Arab countries, China and India.