Museums, archives, and cultural institutions are experiencing a profound transformation, shifting from repositories of exclusive knowledge to interactive and inclusive environments that foster lifelong learning and cultural participation. Building on the historical evolution of collections—from ancient archives and Renaissance Wunderkammern to modern public museums—this paper explores how extended reality (XR), AI-driven avatars, and digital storytelling are reshaping the visitor experience. We analyze how immersive projections, conversational agents, and hybrid “phygital” installations developed by e-REAL Labs have enhanced accessibility, engagement, and preservation across projects in Italy, Switzerland, France, and beyond. These solutions demonstrate how static exhibitions can be converted into dynamic experiences where visitors actively co-construct meaning. Drawing on recent design research, we highlight the importance of cognitive ergonomics, memory, and attention management in XR environments, ensuring that technology supports rather than overwhelms perception. The integration of calm and slow technologies provides balance, making digital tools discreet companions to narrative and curatorial intent. Similarly, modular and adaptive design principles allow installations to fit within diverse architectural and cultural contexts without fragmenting visitor experience. Particular focus is placed on the educational dimension of interactive museums., where extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) extend learning beyond traditional didactics, This approach engages visitors through multisensory experiences that blend physical artifacts with virtual reconstructions. Multilingual avatars and inclusive design guidelines support accessibility for diverse audiences, including individuals with disabilities and marginalized communities. Ultimately, this paper positions interactive museum experiences as a new paradigm of cultural engagement, where digital transformation does not replace authenticity but enhances it. By merging historical preservation with generative AI and immersive storytelling, museums can transcend physical and cognitive barriers, offering equitable access to cultural heritage and fostering dialogue across generations and cultures.

This study aims to develop a practical and effective game-based learning media to address the lack of teacher creativity in designing digital media, specifically for Javanese language subject on Wayang material at MI Tegalroso Parakan. This Research and Development (R&D) used the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation). The research subjects were third-grade students of MI Tegalroso Parakan (n=8). Data collection instruments included needs questionnaires, media and material expert validation sheets, and learning outcome tests (pre-test and post-test). Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test, paired sample t-test, and N-Gain calculation). Expert validation results showed that the TEBANG game media was feasible to use with eligibility percentages of 85% (media expert) and 88% (material expert). The effectiveness test through paired sample t-test showed a significant difference between pre-test (Mean=73.63) and post-test (Mean=85.00) scores with sig. 0.025 (p < 0.05). The N-Gain score of 0.3671 proved the improvement of student learning outcomes in the medium category. This research develops a "Picture Guessing" game genre specifically for Wayang character introduction using the code-free Quick App Ninja platform. This represents a practical and realistic solution for teachers with limited programming competencies, while also functioning as a medium for preserving Javanese culture through an edutainment approach. The TEBANG media provides an innovative, easily accessible (web-based), and easily developed solution for MI/SD teachers. Its implementation is expected to improve learning outcomes, motivation, and active student participation in learning Javanese language and Wayang culture.

Culture and health: time to act. But how?

Against the backdrop of the continuous integration of the platform economy and the digital entertainment industry, virtual idols have emerged as a crucial media form connecting cultural participation, digital labor, and capital operation. Drawing on theoretical frameworks such as participatory culture, playbour, and platform capitalism, this paper takes Hatsune Miku as a case study to analyze how its platform structure, intellectual property arrangements, and commercialization mechanisms organize the digital participation practices of fans and creators. The research finds that through layered governance and peer production mechanisms, Hatsune Miku has buffered the common risk of labor precarity in platformized production to a certain extent, preventing cultural participation from being fully transformed into exploited digital labor. This paper thus argues that the structural differences in institutional design among different virtual idol platforms are key factors shaping participation forms and labor relations.

The globalization of video consultation platforms has exposed critical gaps in cross-cultural technology adaptation, with linguistic and cultural barriers significantly impeding equitable access to healthcare. This study investigated how cultural and linguistic factors influence user experience with video consultation platforms across diverse global contexts. A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed, utilizing purposive sampling to recruit 45 participants from six countries (Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, India, Germany, Brazil) representing distinct cultural dimensions. Data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews (45-60 minutes) and think-aloud protocol sessions (n=18) between March and September 2024. Reflexive thematic analysis, following Braun and Clarke's framework, was conducted, achieving intercoder reliability (κ = 0.87), with data saturation confirmed at 38 participants. Five primary themes emerged: linguistic accessibility barriers affected 82.2% of non-English-speaking participants, and medical terminology translation difficulties ranged from 57.1% to 87.5% across countries. Collectivist culture participants (82.6%) preferred family-inclusive features, whereas individualist culture participants (80%) preferred individual-focused interfaces. Participants from a high-context communication culture required 47% longer to complete the task. Privacy priorities varied substantially, reflecting cultural specificity in trust-formation mechanisms. Visual design preferences varied markedly in color symbolism, information density (42%-78% preferred screen coverage), and icon recognition rates (37.5%-87.5%). Cultural and linguistic factors fundamentally shape the usability of video consultation platforms across multiple dimensions. Findings challenge universal design paradigms, establishing cultural responsiveness as essential to the equitable deployment of telemedicine. Platform developers must integrate comprehensive cultural adaptation, encompassing linguistic localization, accommodation of communication patterns, culturally appropriate privacy frameworks, and customization of visual design.

Raising cultural participation: Limits and pitfalls of cultural spending in cities

In the European Union (EU), cultural participation is recognised both as a human right and as a key factor in fostering a shared European identity. To promote access to culture, the EU has launched several initiatives, including the European Heritage Label (EHL), which aims to highlight heritage sites of symbolic significance for Europe. This article discusses how accessibility for persons with disabilities features in the EHL. It does so further by outlining the international obligations undertaken by the EU to promote participation in culture and ensure accessibility, particularly under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Drawing on a document analysis of key legal and operational EHL texts, the article demonstrates that accessibility is only partially integrated into the initiative and is weakly prioritised in both the site selection and monitoring processes. While self-reporting by the EHL sites on accessibility has improved in recent years, the measures adopted tend to be limited in scope and depth. Overall, the article calls for a stronger and more systematic integration of accessibility requirements within the EHL framework, as well as for the meaningful involvement of organisations of persons with disabilities in assessing and monitoring the accessibility of EHL sites.

Regional branding in peripheral areas often emerges from necessity rather than strategic design. This study investigates the Zuojhen Lantern Festival (ZLF) in Tainan, Taiwan, to examine how bricolage—the creative recombination of available materials, skills, and social networks under constraint—contributes to cultural regeneration and regional identity. The research employs a qualitative case study approach, drawing on two semi-structured interviews, documentary sources, and field photography collected between 2024 and 2025. Guided by the Discovery–Evaluation–Exploitation (D–E–E) framework and Bourdieu’s capital theory, the analysis explores how communities transform limited resources into cultural, social, and symbolic capital through iterative creative practices. The findings reveal that material bricolage, such as the reuse of local bamboo and ecological elements, generated distinctive aesthetic expressions and strengthened environmental awareness. Social bricolage fostered collaboration among returning youth, local artisans, and district officials, reinforcing trust and collective authorship. Symbolic bricolage occurred as the festival gained wider recognition, translating cultural participation into regional brand value. The study concludes that bricolage serves as an adaptive mechanism that enables small communities to convert scarcity into creative potential, aligning grassroots innovation with sustainable regional revitalization. These insights offer practical implications for designing participatory, low-cost, and context-sensitive cultural strategies in similar peripheral settings.

The assessment of education and quality improvement has become part and parcel of the larger higher-education reform agenda, especially in Iraq where universities are faced with simultaneous structural, cultural, and institutional change. This research takes a sociological perspective to examine the dimensions defining evaluation practices and quality assurance with a focus on the interplay between organizational culture, social interaction, and faculty perceptions of teaching performance and institutional development. Mixed-method approach in a field study was utilized, which combines both quantitative survey data, which was conducted among 276 instructors in three Iraqi universities, and qualitative interviews, which were developed to question the socio-cultural meaning of evaluation. Statistical analysis showed that there were strong positive relationships between institutional transparency, collegial trust and faculty involvement in quality assurance activities. Based on qualitative results, recognition, fairness, and sense of professional identity were emphasized as key factors in promoting participation. The research finds that sociologically based variables, namely trust, shared values, and communicative processes, are some of the determinants of legitimacy and effectiveness of evaluation systems. Improving participatory cultures in evaluation and moving national quality policy frameworks and academic realities closer to each other would support credibility and spur lasting change in Iraqi higher education.

In the theoretical context of the post-Hall era, the core challenge facing popular culture studies lies in understanding the modes of existence of the subject within increasingly fragmented and technologically mediated cultural practices, following the suspension of the ontological connection between the symbolic and the real. While Hall’s “Gramscian turn” successfully established the image of an actively decoding public, it also rendered the philosophical grounding and political efficacy of subjectivity uncertain by transforming the ontological question into a terrain of struggle. After Hall, theorists such as Lauren Berlant, Henry Jenkins, and Rosi Braidotti, through concepts like affective attachment, participatory culture, and nomadic becoming, collectively advanced the shift in the subject paradigm from a stable, bounded entity toward an immanent, relational, and dynamic process of becoming. The philosophical foundation of this series of theoretical transformations can be summarized as a “generative movement”, wherein the identity of the subject no longer stems from a priori essence but resides within the dynamic trajectories formed by cultural practices and affective attunements. This paradigm renews the approach to defending subjectivity by redefining reflection and critique as differential practices internal to the generative process, thereby offering new theoretical pathways for conceptualizing resistance and openness under conditions of flux.

Curriculum internationalization (IoC) is widely promoted in Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools (CFCRS) to strengthen global competencies and institutional competitiveness. Despite strong policy support, faculty engagement in IoC remains uneven, and little is known about the specific cultural, personal, and institutional factors shaping participation. This study surveyed 442 faculty across 14 CFCRS-host universities to examine faculty commitment and identify key blockers to engagement. Results showed moderately high commitment to IoC, yet engagement was constrained by disciplinary mindset limitations, perceptions of educational marketization, limited support for international industry experience, underrecognized workload allocation and limited international exposure. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that these blockers had a stronger influence on engagement than faculty perceptions. By highlighting these context-specific obstacles and their impact, the study offers actionable insights for policymakers and academic leaders to enhance faculty participation and advance sustainable IoC practices in CFCRS-host universities, supporting long-term curriculum internationalization goals.

ABSTRACT This case study examines two grassroots libraries in Guangzhou managed by local NGO STARS. It aims to explore how these two community libraries identify themselves, define their roles, and secure sustainability within China’s evolving urban public library sector. Longitudinal data and survey findings show that they function as vibrant, inclusive community hubs for learning, leisure, and cultural participation. With a dual identity as legitimate yet autonomous public libraries, they remain closely aligned with the strategic priorities of Guangzhou’s City of Libraries Framework. Their sustained success is underpinned by professional governance, mission-driven collaboration, and responsiveness to local needs.

ABSTRACT Background Participation in arts, culture and recreation activities (ACRs) supports youth wellbeing, however little is known about the drivers of participation across the life course. Longitudinal approaches provide nuanced insights into patterns of access and engagement, identifying where additional support is needed to sustain engagement in ACRs over time. Methods This study examines ACR participation from ages 8 to 12 in Aotearoa New Zealand, across Sports, Creative Arts and Community-based activities. Data came from the 8-year wave (2017–2019) and 12-year wave (2021–2022) of the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal cohort study (N = 3,738). We assessed participation pathways (sustained, increasing, decreasing or disengaged), and analysed associations with identity (gender, ethnicity, disability) and sociodemographic factors (deprivation, household structure, rurality), using chi-squared tests of independence and standardised residuals analyses. Results Participation in all three activity types increased from ages 8 to 12. Identity and sociodemographic characteristics were significantly associated, but not rurality. Across participation pathways, engagement was not evenly distributed across the population, with structural, geographic, and cultural influences contributing to complex patterns of access and continuity. For example, children in extended family households showed higher increasing Creative Arts participation and higher sustained Community activity participation, highlighting the positive impacts of support from family. Conclusions Findings highlight both persistent inequities and promising enabling factors in access to ACRs amongst youth. Targeted, equity-focused interventions are needed to ensure all young people in Aotearoa can sustain meaningful participation in ACRs across the life course.

ABSTRACT This article examines whether Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) may possess structural advantages for artificial intelligence adoption compared to conventionally owned firms. Drawing on research identifying the organizational factors associated with AI adoption success—employee trust, participatory culture, training investment, and aligned incentives—I examine evidence that ESOP companies tend to demonstrate these characteristics. Preliminary empirical evidence, including recent research on automation adoption in employee-owned firms, provides suggestive support for this hypothesis, though substantial gaps in the research remain. This article examines both potential advantages and structural limitations of employee ownership for technology adoption and concludes by identifying priorities for a research agenda to test these propositions empirically. While the evidence is preliminary, I believe ESOPs warrant attention as an organizational form for managing AI adoption challenges.

Research methodology This case was developed using a blend of primary context and secondary data. One of the case authors, Dr Himanshu Chauhan, is both the subject and narrator of the case dilemma. His reflections, classroom experiences and pedagogical considerations are authentic and drawn directly from his teaching practice at the School of Business, UPES. The case is further supported by secondary sources, including Indian and international news coverage (The Hindu, The Indian Express and Economic Times), official US Embassy and US Department of State releases and publicly available social media and video content related to Ambassador Garcetti’s communication strategy.No confidential interviews were conducted with diplomatic staff or other stakeholders, and all information about public figures has been obtained from publicly available, credible sources. Because the case relies on a combination of authorial lived experience and secondary data, no ethics review board approval was required. The narrative contains no disguised or fictionalized element. In preparing the manuscript, copy-editing (correcting, editing, formatting and modifying or refining) of the authors’ own original work using generative artificial intelligence tools and technology has been used, strictly for the purpose of improving structure, clarity of language and grammar. This use adhered to the overarching principles of maintaining academic integrity, originality and authorial responsibility for all ideas, analysis and arguments presented. Case overview/synopsis This case explores the pedagogical dilemma faced by Dr Himanshu Chauhan (Dr Chauhan), a communication professor at UPES (India), as he considers incorporating the public diplomacy and communication strategies of Ambassador Eric Garcetti (Garcetti) into a leadership communication module. Garcetti’s approach – characterized by cultural participation, active social media engagement and a highly visible personal brand – generated contrasting reactions across Indian audiences. While youth and students viewed his style as relatable and modern, senior diplomats, policymakers and media commentators questioned its alignment with expectations of diplomatic gravitas. India’s strategic importance in US foreign policy and its culturally layered communication environment heighten the significance of Garcetti’s choices. His style stands in visible contrast to his predecessors, reflecting broader shifts in 21st century leadership communication, digital diplomacy and cross-cultural engagement. The case enables students to assess leadership communication across contexts and analyze how different audiences interpret and react to leadership behavior using frameworks such as Hall’s high–low context model, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Goffman’s presentation of self, Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals and stakeholder theory. It encourages learners to evaluate the tradeoffs between authenticity, personal branding, institutional credibility and cultural expectations. For instructors, the case provides a timely opportunity to prompt debate, integrate theory with contemporary practice and guide students toward constructing nuanced, context-sensitive communication strategies for leaders operating in diverse cultural environments. Complexity academic level This case is designed for use in graduate-level programs, particularly:

This study examines youth participation patterns in various forms of physical activity, i.e. movement culture, ranging from club sports and gym workouts to self-organised physical activities across four sociogeographic contexts in Sweden: rural, mid-size city, inner city, and suburbs. Building on earlier research, which began in 1996 and was conducted in the same contexts, this study provides a contemporary and partly historical account of how gender, migration background, and the composition of economic and cultural capital influence participation and non-participation. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and capital, the analysis uses survey data from 945 ninth-grade students (aged 15–16) and applies binary and multinomial logistic regression. The historical comparison of club sport participation from 1996 to 2024 shows both stability over the years and recent declines, especially in girls’ participation. Overall, the findings reveal that youth participation in movement culture is structured through the combined effect of gender, capital, and place (context). While cultural capital facilitates engagement across all settings, economic resources and local contexts influence how, and for whom, participation becomes accessible and meaningful.

Paying attention to the emotional labor of rural teachers is a necessary step to enhance their professional happiness and promote the development of high-quality rural education. Based on the theory of emotional intelligence (EI), this study conducted a qualitative research on 13 frontline rural teachers. From the three dimensions of emotional mapping, emotional investment, and emotional resonance, it explored the emotional cornerstone, emotional motivation, and emotional destination of rural teachers in participating in school cultural construction. The study also attempted to explore how to help rural teachers establish a sense of belonging and emotional attachment through emotional labor, ultimately taking root in rural education. The research findings indicate that rural teachers should be assisted in clarifying the direction of their emotional development amid confusion and constructing an emotional map; guided to explore emotional coexistence spaces amid differences and experience emotional investment in the school; and encouraged to cultivate emotional stability through refinement, achieve emotional resonance with the school, and thereby become excellent rural teachers who can take root, actively contribute, and pursue excellence.

Accessible digital games represent an emerging frontier for inclusion, offering both challenges and opportunities to advance the cultural participation of neurodivergent people. This study presents a systematic literature review of empirical research on game accessibility for neurodivergent players, including autistic individuals and persons with intellectual disabilities. Forty-eight studies published between 2014 and 2025 were analysed to examine how accessibility is defined, implemented, and evaluated in game design. The results reveal that accessibility is often framed as a functional or therapeutic adjustment rather than as a social or cultural right. Although growing attention has been paid to sensory and cognitive barriers, few studies adopt neurodiversity-affirming or participatory frameworks. Most remain confined to educational or rehabilitation contexts, with limited involvement of neurodivergent co-designers. The findings call for a redefinition of accessibility as a creative, ethical, and political principle central to inclusive digital culture and the neurodiversity movement.

Event management has increasingly emerged as a significant medium for cultural expression, religious engagement, and community participation in contemporary India. This study examines the organization and impact of the Mahamrityunjaya Shivratri 2025 event featuring 108 Shivlings and 108 Nandis, conceptualized and executed by Pallavis Management in Pune. The research explores how structured event planning, ritual design, and performative elements transformed a traditional religious observance into a sacred collective experience fostering spiritual immersion and social cohesion. Using a qualitative case study approach, the paper analyses the planning process, spatial design, ritual sequencing, participant involvement, and audience response. The findings indicate that professional event management functions not merely as a logistical mechanism but as a cultural mediator enhancing devotional intensity, symbolic meaning, and collective participation. The study further highlights intergenerational engagement, cultural continuity, and the revitalization of traditional practices within an urban context, particularly through the active participation of family members across generations. The paper contributes to the discourse on cultural and religious event management by demonstrating how contemporary event practices can preserve and amplify sacred traditions in modern society.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have been increasingly employed in exhibition communication in the last decade. These tools may also be used to assess the results of museum learning. Despite growing adoption, little research has examined how AR/VR technologies convey exhibition content and support interpretation. Museum exhibitions catalyse aesthetic enjoyment, but they are also sophisticated learning environments that are sources of knowledge, like learning tools or textbooks. Furthermore, museums may be interpreted as specific learning spaces where basic concepts, value structures and interpretive models of relevant shared culture are articulated. This paper presents usability studies of AR-based exhibition guides developed by the first author. Three visitor studies (pilot, improved version, optimized tool) in different exhibition settings with 142 students were designed. Our objective was to assess how AR-based guides enhance communication and visitor experience. To this end, we developed an evaluation tool grounded in visual framing theory, aimed at measuring how effectively these tools convey curatorial messages and support interpretive engagement in exhibition contexts. The results of this study showed the successful application of the guide and the high potentials of virtual technology for visitor engagement and museum learning.