Peripheral Societies Research Articles

Entrepreneurship at the edge? The characteristics and role of creative entrepreneurs in peripheral regions

ABSTRACT To advance the understanding of the nature and dynamics of creative entrepreneurship in specific contexts, this paper explores how creative entrepreneurship both shapes and is shaped by its peripheral context. This paper adds to the growing work that is helping us understand that when looking at the periphery through the lens of cultural and creative practice we find a much more nuanced set of relations between place and practice. We focus on geographically separate regions facing the same obstacles of geographic peripherality. Underpinning the findings are semi-structured interviews reflecting the experience of creative entrepreneurs in North East Iceland, Västernorrland in Mid Sweden and the western region of Ireland. While we recognise that problems still exist in the creative industries policy domain, we argue that policy supports would be best designed in line with the characteristics of the sector in particular places. This work also helps to develop knowledge of the multifaceted role of the creative entrepreneur in peripheral societies and economies.

Teaching 21st-century skills in rural secondary schools: From theory to practice

The concept of “21st-century skills” has become increasingly pervasive in the global educational discourse, and there has been a marked increase in research on how these skills can be integrated into education policy, curriculum, and assessment. Nevertheless, there has been a dearth of research on integrating and implementing 21st-century skills into classroom practices, particularly in peripheral societies. Adopting a mixed-method approach, this study investigates the integration and implementation of 21st-century skills in rural schools in Bangladesh, where many teachers are untrained and under-resourced. Data were obtained from primary and secondary sources through document analysis (n = 3), lesson observations (n = 15), and in-depth interviews with practising teachers (n = 18). Samples were selected purposefully to achieve the study objectives. Likewise, a convenient sampling technique was also followed by the researchers in terms of getting access to the participants. The qualitative content analysis, descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis of data demonstrate that while 21st-century skills are explicitly highlighted in policy documents, including the curriculum, many teachers are uninformed about these skills. Specifically, teachers have a limited pedagogical understanding of how to incorporate these skills into classroom instruction. As a result, both trained and untrained teachers rarely implement 21st-century skills in their classrooms, which results in their deviation from the instructional practices recommended by the curriculum.

CULTURAL BILINGUALISM AND LANGUAGES IN CONTACT IN TEXT PRODUCTION: EXPLAINING THE CASE OF PERMANENT INTERFERENCES IN WRITTEN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

A critical review of the nature of Education as a universal right in peripheral societies, based on the analysis of the social and cultural circumstances that permeate the learning experience of the written Portuguese language in Brazilian schools. The concept of cultural bilingualism is defended as necessary in facing the demand for subjectivation of the universal right to Education, supported by facts of written production among school subjects. It also justifies the overcoming of the classic concepts of bilingualism, listed exclusively from grammatical-functional aspects or issues of use that are restricted to linguistic facts. Situations of tension stand out in the contact between oral and written Portuguese of Brazil - symbolically considered the Brazilian national language - whose origin goes back to historical-cultural aspects that acted in the process of the implantation of the Portuguese Language in Brazilian territory. Derived from such aspects, there are situations of languages in contact that can only be properly explained by the concept of cultural bilingualism. Keywords: cultural bilingualism, linguistic rights, mother tongue teaching, public education policies, teacher training

Crimes on the edge? Criminal activities and the crime-terror nexus in the Kenyan peripheries of the Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT Maritime security threats in the East African coastal peripheries are greatly interwoven with local crimes, economies, and socio-political lifestyles. How crimes are viewed, defined, and categorised as legal and illegal by the locals elucidates how the crime-terrorism nexus is contextualised in specific localities along the coastal seafronts. Often, financial-motivated crimes have the potential to go hand in hand with ideologically driven terrorist activities, where both syndicates operate discreetly in these communities. Based on an ethnographic study in Kenya, this article interrogates the local meanings and understandings of criminal activities in peripheral societies to determine how local crimes intersect with terrorism-related activities. The crisscrossing modus operandi of criminal syndicates and terrorist networks provides each other with safe havens, secrecy in operations, and a vulnerable base of supporters in environments where state-citizen relationships are deteriorating.

The Informal Economy in Masande Ntshanga’sThe Reactive

AbstractThe idea that (semi-)peripheral societies might follow developmental pathways distinct from those prescribed by globalization has been explored at length in the last twenty years by scholars such as G. G. Alcock, Rem Koolhaus, Jane Guyer, AbdouMaliq Simone, Achille Mbembe, and Sarah Nuttall. For scholars who have celebrated these kinds of sociality, the informal economy—as Keith Hart has called it—represents Gordimer’s “space that lies between camps”: an alternative social velocity to both the corrupt or “can’t do” state and global capitalist modernization. But more and more South African writers are using their work to interrogate the idea that living in the interstices of institutions such as the state, traditional community, and capital is in fact liberatory or counter-hegemonic. In this article I argue that Masande Ntshanga’s 2014 novelThe Reactiveis the paradigm of the “disaffection” of present fiction—as Ivan Vladislavić describes it—with contemporary South Africa.

Viajes, éxodos y colisiones: reanimando las convicciones en un mundo global violento. aportes desde una ética intercultural/decolonial

The article proposes to relocate the plural convictions of the cultures and Peoples of the Earth in the framework of a normative discussion linked to the planetary environmental crisis. In the systematic violence, displacement and exodus of human communities and endless destructive processes that the dynamics of Capital continue to carry out, a dialogue of axiologies is needed to advance in an intercultural/decolonial deontological ethics. From this intercultural/decolonial turn that defines part of current critical thinking, the serious environmental problems that affect the collision of convictions in interethnic territories and peripheral societies are analyzed, which means linking convictions with norms. For this reason, the idea of what the indigenous peoples carry out is defended, as they teach us other sapiential and material forms of Life, defining ethically, politically and legally the relationships with all living beings: human and non-human.

RESISTING NEOLIBERALISM: A STUDY OF H.M. NAQVI’S HOME BOY

Neoliberalism, as a recent capitalism, advances the wellbeing of dominant groups, it corporates elites and the developed economies, particularly of the West, and it has negative implications for the downtrodden classes and third-world countries. Drawing upon the critique of neoliberalism by the recent left-wing writers, this study explores the novel Home Boy’s critique of resistance to the economic issues of neoliberalism. The study makes use of qualitative research, interpretivist paradigm and descriptive-analytical method to explore the novel’s resistance to and critique of neoliberalism. The findings show that Boy portrays precarious condition of the downtrodden and working classes, absence of social protection, job insecurity, global disparity and spatial differentiation under the dominant ideology of neoliberalism. The novel reveals that neoliberal practices grind down the downtrodden, migrant workers and peripheral societies at global level; consequently, neoliberalism engenders resistance and hostility among them. The study is useful in exploring the critique of neoliberalism in literary works, including Anglophone Pakistani writings. Keywords: Neoliberalism, Resistance, corporate interests, privatization, insecurity, lack of social protection, downsizing, inequality and spatial differentiation.

Barbarigenesis and the collapse of complex societies: Rome and after.

"Barbarism" is perhaps best understood as a recurring syndrome among peripheral societies in response to the threats and opportunities presented by more developed neighbors. This article develops a mathematical model of barbarigenesis-the formation of "barbarian" societies adjacent to more complex societies-and its consequences, and applies the model to the case of Europe in the first millennium CE. A starting point is a game (developed by Hirshleifer) in which two players allocate their resources either to producing wealth or to fighting over wealth. The paradoxical result is that a richer and potentially more powerful player may lose out to a poorer player, because the opportunity cost of fighting is greater for the former. In a more elaborate spatial model with many players, the outcome is a wealth-power mismatch: central regions have comparatively more wealth than power, peripheral regions have comparatively more power than wealth. In a model of historical dynamics, a wealth-power mismatch generates a long-lasting decline in social complexity, sweeping from more to less developed regions, until wealth and power come to be more closely aligned. This article reviews how well this model fits the historical record of late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages in Europe both quantitatively and qualitatively. The article also considers some of the history left out of the model, and why the model doesn't apply to the modern world.

Unveiling the power behind cryptocurrency mining in Venezuela: A fragile energy infrastructure and precarious labor

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis (2008–2010), peer-to-peer online payment mechanisms emerged as a way to avoid financial intermediaries and untrusted centralized state authorities. Cryptocurrencies proliferated among like-minded individuals, generally depicted by scholars as anarcho-capitalists. Much social science literature has focused on governance and technical puzzles that these new market tools bring about as well as on the risks associated with the problems of trust, security, money laundering and illegal financing. In this article, I shift gaze to center on the material underpinnings of cryptocurrencies, such as energy systems and infrastructure, as well as how cryptocurrencies can expand in contexts of crisis in peripheral societies. I focus on the case of Venezuela to explain some of these processes in the rise and expansion of cryptocurrency markets that have remained at the margins of energy and political economy discussions. A deep dive into Venezuela allows us to de-virtualize our understandings of cryptocurrencies. It redirects our attention to infrastructure, energy, rent, and precarious conditions of living in a crumbling rentier society, shedding light on the use and expansion of cryptocurrencies in a nominally socialist country.

Urbanization and mental health as a research problem in Latin America (with a focus on Brazil).

The basic hypothesis of this paper is that, in Latin America, the nature of the set of variables or determinants regarding the relationships of urbanization (and correlated processes of social change, modernization, acculturation, and economic inclusion) and mental health varies with the political context or historical phase considered. To assess the validity of the hypothesis, I propose a periodization of the economic, political, and social changes that occurred in Latin America in the past decades. A brief review of recent studies on social determinants of mental health (with a focus on Brazil), considering research findings by historical context, shows that urbanization-modernization-migration variables were more present in the literature in the decades of 1980 and 1990, whereas social inequity factors (gender, ethnicity/race, and racism) came to be dominant as a research question after the year 2000. New approaches of the mental health situation of peripheral societies such as those in the Latin American continent have gone beyond the urban environment as a determinant and start to consider social determination processes and political contexts.

BTS as method: a counter-hegemonic culture in the network society

This study focuses on the BTS sensation, examining how three entities – digital networks, the K-pop industry, and fandom – have engaged in the production of an alternative global culture. Based on a multimodal critical discourse analysis of this rising cultural act, the current study pays attention to the dialectical interaction of digital transformation and cultural subjectivization in the contemporary music ecosystem. By integrating Manuel Castells’ notion of the network society into Stuart Hall’s articulation of cultural resistance, I consider BTS as a counter-hegemonic cultural formation from the periphery within the network society. I also argue that the BTS phenomenon has not only unveiled the ideological dimension of Korean cultural formations, but has also proposed new possibilities of non-western and peripheral societies and subjects in the globally networked cultural sphere.

Reflections on Afrika Bambaataa’s Universal Zulu Nation: horizons, hip hop, and hybridity

ABSTRACT Using Hans-Georg Gadamer’s famous discourse on horizons and modern postcolonial theories on black religious pluralism, this article examines Afrika Bambaataa, along with the organization he founded, the Universal Zulu Nation. The emphasis of the analysis is on his overcoming of material borderlands, interventions in cultural knowing, and forming of hybrid identities with reference to the vitality of religion. This methodology not only intimates pragmatic epistemologies that elucidate transmissions of knowledge and ethics across geographic landscapes but also fosters a more general framework of social analysis regarding shared human heritages. An evaluation of how Zulu horizons operate between local communities and global cultures demonstrates how interreligious dialogue and polyethnic belongings that extend across transnational spiritualties and societies signify ways of transgressing difference and sameness within ideological systems. After a discussion of cultural hermeneutics as a mode of interpreting the histories of ontology and Otherness to obtain a basis for understanding peripheral societies and faiths, the article then investigates how the Zulu Nation belongs to an Afrocentric pluralist tradition within those constellations of ideas and ideals, before the conclusion focuses on the way recent allegations of Bambaataa’s sexual assault affect his legacy of social consciousness for scholars of contemporary religion.

The Internationalization of Science and Education as a Global Process: a World-System Approach

Introduction. Over the past 20 years, the scale and nature of educational migration has changed, its mechanisms have changed, and managerial coordination has improved. The emergence and development of online educational platforms has changed the general picture of educational migration, forcing researchers to return to the analysis of the ontological, theoretical, and methodological foundations of the study of educational migration as international and regional phenomena. Today, there is a need to select theoretical and methodological grounds for explaining the problems that have arisen in Russian science and the educational system in the process of internationalization. The authors solve the problem of analysis and synthesis of such necessary grounds for the subsequent study of educational migration, its forms and consequences, including for Russian society. Methodology and sources. The theoretical constructions of the world-system approach (I. Wallerstein) are used as a methodological basis. The authors also use the ideas of M. Demeter on the distribution and competition of modern education in the world and the results of research by T. Schott, who studied the links between scientific and educational centers. The authors set the task of integrating the concepts of the world-system approach and the scientific baggage of a number of modern theories (G. Knight, P. Collier) to pose questions and then discuss the current situation in Russia. Results and discussion. The production of knowledge and national education systems are not autonomous from the general dynamics of the world system, they are integral parts of its functioning. The result of social relations "core-semi-periphery-periphery" is the unevenness in the accumulation of transnational academic capital. M. Demeter outlined four types of modern societies, differing in the possibilities of accumulating transnational academic capital. Scientific and educational migration between the countries of the first three types, as a rule, is temporary and useful in terms of communication of highly qualified specialists. The migration of gifted people from the periphery and semi-periphery to the core often becomes emigration, which leads peripheral societies to losses in human capital and not justifying expenses for education. Strategies to overcome the inequality in the accumulation of academic capital and the negative effects of emigration on education and science are to create a "secondary core" on the basis of a common language, as well as to "seize" the main levers in organizing world science, while developing national production and increasing the labor market. Based on the results, the authors propose for discussion three questions about the prospects for the development of the current situation in Russia. First, to which of the four types of societies of the world system (according to M. Demeter) should Russian society be classified? Secondly, does Russia have the opportunity to create a "secondary core" or "capture" leading positions in the organization of world science and education? Thirdly, is there a conscious strategy in Russia today for the formation of something similar to the "secondary core"? Conclusion. The authors argue that the interpretation of the internationalization of education and educational migration based on the world-system approach opens up a number of prospects for further research.

Os direitos humanos da criança: análise das recomendações do Comitê dos Direitos da Criança das Nações Unidas.

O artigo tem por objetivo analisar os direitos humanos de criança sob uma perspectiva crítica, tendo em vista que a simples positivação dos direitos da criança tanto no campo internacional, quanto no âmbito nacional, não se mostrou suficiente à efetivação dos direitos humanos e fundamentais. Para tal, foi realizado um estudo do relatório da Convenção dos Direitos da Criança da ONU, de outubro de 2015, que apresentou inúmeras violações de direitos infanto-juvenis, especialmente das crianças afro-brasileiras, indígenas, pessoas com deficiência e de gênero no Brasil. Adotou-se o método indutivo com pesquisa documental e bibliográfica. Verificou-se que é preciso estabelecer um novo paradigma dos direitos humanos, extensivo aos direitos das crianças e adolescentes, como marco no paradigma da proteção integral, que considere o contexto histórico, sociológico e cultural das sociedades periféricas e o reconhecimento do sujeito e suas garantias fundamentais.

Typologies of pre-modern societies beyond feudalism: exploring alternative possibilities and the problem of their applicability in cases of peripheral European societies

The most traditional approach of medievalists to articulate classification of pre-modern European societies is to consider whether particular pre-modern society is feudal or not. However I argue that this approach is quite complicated because of ambiguity and polysemy of the term. There are at least several Marxist and non-Marxist alternatives instead. Transcending the horizon of debates about feudalism proposes more creative possibilities and enlarges analytical capacities. Although discussion about the notorious Asiatic mode of production seems obsolete nevertheless there are other more promising and up-to-date concepts like the tributary mode of production, patrimonialism versus feudalism dichotomy or the so-called type/model of early Central European state (the system of Ius Ducale). The application of the concept of the African mode of production in the case of typology of some European pre-modern peripheral societies despite of its astonishing etymology also is plausible. Another perspective way of elaboration comparative researches of pre-modern European peripheries is combining Marxist and non-Marxist concepts (like patrimonialism and the tributary mode of production, for example). I would also like to emphasize that in some cases in order to develop adequate typological concepts the combining of evaluation of internal (evolving of socioeconomic structures) as well as estimation of external impact is inevitable.

The Metamorphosis of the Revolutionary Intellectual

It is argued in this article that different types of intellectuals have existed over time—organic, revolutionary and ‘public’. Revolutionary intellectuals are organic intellectuals of the dominated classes, who are committed to the transformation of society. In the South, organic intellectuals have had difficulty becoming ‘public’ intellectuals, given the exceptionally repressive conditions prevailing in peripheral societies seeking liberation, democratization and revolutionary transformation. Yet, even revolutionary intellectuals can undergo metamorphosis over time, whether in NGOs, state bureaucracies or universities.

THE CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF FLORESTAN FERNANDES

Abstract The article proposes to rethink the work of Florestan Fernandes at the intersection of the texts on ‘national formation,’ certain analytic references originating from the sociology of culture, and studies of Brazilian social thought. From this perspective, it emphasizes the cultural dimensions of the author’s sociological output, based on his analysis of the constitution of modern values in peripheral societies like Brazil’s. Finally it revisits his contribution through the filter of the crisis of contemporary Brazil, seeking to elucidate questions intrinsic to our own era.

European Integration and Trends of Development of Eastern European Borderland

Development and problems of modernization of peripheral societies of European civilization are considered in the paper. It is argued that recent enlargement of the European Union has left three Eastern European countries – Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine in a specific zone that can be defined as Eastern European borderland. The difference in developmental tracks of European societies has been demonstrated and it is suggested that successful development of peripheral societies in Central and Eastern Europe is possible by means of European integration.

Seeking the State: Appropriating Bureaucratic Symbolism and Wealth in the Margins of Southeast Asia

Anthropological research on Southeast Asian states has contributed to understanding how local communities engage with states in their everyday lives. Two approaches drawing out the complexities of state‐society entanglement stand out. First is Foucault's idea that states possess the art‐of‐government. Through techniques such as mapping, census data, biometrics and so on, states are believed to achieve new levels of control over people, who are thus rendered as individual citizens. Second is Scott's idea that societies possess the art‐of‐not‐being‐governed. People, particularly in peripheral areas, seek to escape state control, for instance by sheltering in the hills and forests of Asia. In this article, we seek to identify and expand upon a literature which we see as emerging from the space opened between Foucault and Scott's work, to demonstrate the many creative and diverse ways that peripheral societies seek out states. In doing this we present a synthesis of diverse forms of entanglement to provide new insights into understanding relations between societies and states.

Ireland, Europe and the Global Crisis

For Ireland – along with Spain, Portugal and Greece – membership of ‘Europe’ was seen as an opportunity to escape their historical legacy of ‘underdevelopment’ and become fully integrated into core positions in the global system. Each of these states, and especially Ireland experienced significant growth in the European Union but once the global financial crisis struck, they suffered a deep economic and social crisis, and came to be categorised once again as ‘peripheral’ to Europe. This acute recurrence of a core-periphery divide in the European Union has been accompanied by a rapid diminution of democracy in the EU and its transformation into an increasingly coercive formation. The deprivation programmes imposed by the EU on the peripheral societies has not only damaged growth in the European economy, they have hugely diminished the legitimacy of the European integration project. The essay explores the roots of Europe’s changing power structures and assesses the implications of the Eurozone crisis for the future of the European integration project.