Political Change Research Articles

Strategic technological processes in hospitals: Conflicts and personal experiences of healthcare teams.

Global health systems operate amid dynamic factors, including demographic shifts, economic variations, political changes, technological progress, and societal trends that lead to VUCA reality (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). To address these challenges, healthcare organizations are increasingly turning to Strategic Technological Processes and digital transformation. Against this background, the current study examined the personal experiences, conflicts, difficulties, and moral dilemmas attendant upon accommodating this digital transformation of healthcare professionals. The study involved 27 healthcare professionals working in Israeli hospitals, whose experiences and perspectives were central to understanding the impact of digital transformation in healthcare settings. The study methodology rested on in-depth interviews, which were analyzed through the prism of the Listening Guide analytical technique. The research obtained pre-approval from the Ethics Committee at the researcher's institution. The study revealed that the healthcare professionals are indeed facing ethical conflicts and personal challenges related to digitalization (such as providing the best quality of care, being the best caregiver, and acting for the betterment of the hospital). It also identified dilemmas resulting from conflicts between the needs and demands of the health system and the healthcare professionals' values and resources. The study findings highlight the impact of ethical and moral challenges accompanying strategic organizational and digital transformation changes implemented by healthcare organizations worldwide. These challenges arise as healthcare institutions adapt to the demands of the 21st century, potentially leading to burnout and moral distress among healthcare professionals, further exacerbating the already stressful reality they face. In conclusion, the study emphasizes the critical necessity for comprehensive support strategies to alleviate stress and burnout among healthcare professionals. As healthcare organizations and personnel navigate significant organizational changes to address contemporary challenges, prioritizing the well-being of healthcare workers through effective support mechanisms becomes imperative.

Oceanic feeling in Mati Diop’s Atlantique

ABSTRACT The ocean is a constant presence in Mati Diop’s award-winning film Atlantique/Atlantics (2019), a ghostly love story about the ongoing migration crisis set in Dakar, Senegal. A critical issue Diop explores in this film is the contradiction between the geopolitical stasis of a high-rise tower and the expansive continuity of the sea, making the physical reality captured by the lens overlap with the unrestricted flow of presences carried by waves of sea and sound through the film frame. This article analyses oceanic aesthetics and the unrestricted flows of bodies of water and work in both Diop’s recent feature film and her first experimental documentary of almost the same title, Atlantiques/Atlantics (2009). These corporeal drifts disrupt narrative and temporal flows and position the cinema as a space for poetic and political change. What the ocean embodies is not only a tragic archive of colonial violence, as Rosalind Galt has recently argued, but also a space for a feminist and decolonial refusal of such loss.

Everyday Caste and Everyday Resistance: An Ethnographic Account From Western Uttar Pradesh

In the last three decades or so, there have been considerable political changes in Uttar Pradesh (UP), particularly where caste is concerned. This is linked to the anti-caste movements in the state and the rise of the Bahujan Samaj Party, which is seen to address issues of Jatavs and other Scheduled Castes that had been politically marginalised. In the years since it first came to power, dalits in the city of Meerut have not witnessed the kind of brutal state aggression they did in Shergarhi after an Ambedkar statue was installed in a local park in 1994. And yet casteism and the fear of it continue to shape the everyday lives of dalits in the city. This article is based on fieldwork conducted in three neighbourhoods in Meerut city in western UP. It explores the ways Jatavs experience casteism as well as the modes of resistance and the multiple strategies employed by them to gain dignity and self-respect.

Corpus-Based Diachronic Study of WAR Metaphor in Indonesian Political Discourse

The use of metaphor in political discourse is pervasive. One of the common source domain used in political metaphor is of WAR source domain. The increasing use of WAR metaphor reflects the intensity of the political situation. This paper examines the diachronic used of WAR metaphor in Indonesian Political Discourse. The aim is to analyze the use of the WAR source domain of metaphor used to speak about the Indonesian Political Situation and to compare the use of the metaphor before and after the direct election system is in effect (in 2004). The data are taken from 1896 news articles related to the political situation dan political coalition, that spans from 1980 to 2020 in Tempo online magazine. The study is corpus-based with The Conceptual Metaphor Framework of Lakoff and Johnson used as the theoretical background. The data analysis is conducted in two stages, first by quantitative analysis using Antconc Corpus Concordance Software to measure the frequency of WAR metaphor used to speak about Political situation and the second is the qualitative analysis to evaluate the change and the development of metaphor use. The result of the study should reflect how the political change that occurred in Indonesia can be reflected through the language in particular reflected from the metaphor used to speak about the political condition. The finding shows that there are three categories of diachronic change of WAR metaphorical expression: the first is the terms that have been used metaphorically even before 1998 (reformation era); the second is the terms that are recorded in use as a metaphor after 1998 and the last is the metaphorical expressions that are recorded in use before 1998 but have not been recorded after that.

The stock market reaction to political and economic changes: the Spanish case

AbstractAs other European countries, Spain has experienced a turmoil in which new political parties emerged with force after the global financial crisis in 2008. In this context, we analyze whether the empirical implications of the opportunistic and partisan theories, as well as the Uncertain Information Hypothesis, are met in the Spanish stock market, considering the size and the industry of the companies. The horizon of our study takes into account the seven general elections, 24 regional elections and 4 European elections held from 2002 to 2019, period in which Spain is fully integrated in the economic and monetary union and under the macroeconomic imbalance procedure. Our results do not support the opportunistic and partisan theories, or the Uncertain Information Hypothesis. Our evidence suggests that the short-term negative market reaction to the general elections is linked to the uncertainty with a change in the political sign of the incumbent. Besides, it is not related to size or industry characteristics.

Afghanistan’s raw materials policy regarding rare earth elements after the Taliban victory [Polityka surowcowa Afganistanu dotycząca metali ziem rzadkich po zwycięstwie Talibów

The Taliban victory in Afghanistan in 2021 has not only raised geopolitical concerns but has also sparked questions about the state’s policies and strategies concerning its rare earth elements reserves. The main objective of the presented article is to indicate how the current political change in Afghanistan may affect the raw material policy regarding the extraction of rare earth elements, taking into account geopolitical factors. Rare earth elements are a group of critical minerals that are of great importance to modern technologies, ranging from electronics and renewable energy to defence systems. Afghanistan is known to possess significant deposits of these valuable resources, which have the potential to play a crucial role in global supply chains, especially in the face of ongoing rivalry between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America. The research problem of the considerations undertaken in this article is to assess the key challenges and opportunities in harnessing Afghanistan’s rare earth element resources after the Taliban’s return to power. The research conducted shows that despite having a significant amount of rare earth elements, Afghanistan lacks the infrastructure necessary to extract and process these valuable minerals. After the Taliban victory, the newly established government sees the potential benefit in extracting rare earth elements and is willing to align itself with China to exploit them.

Surveying the Landscape of Environmental Social Science: A Bibliometric and Network Analysis

Abstract Social science research on the environment has grown exponentially in the past four decades alongside increasing awareness that environmental risks, such as climate change, cannot be understood by natural science interventions alone. While prior research examines how specific disciplines, like sociology, have attended to the environment or how specific problems have been engaged across disciplines, less attention has been offered to the entire landscape of research on the environment in the social sciences. In this article, we ask: What is the landscape of environmental social science? Focusing on 124,906 social scientific articles from the Web of Science, we analyze the relationship between journals publishing research on the environment. Specifically, we construct journal citation networks and topic models on bibliographic records from 1990 to 2022. Results suggest that journals form coherent communities associated with both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research topics, indicating that journal communities may be a central organizing feature of ESS. Moreover, research topics prevalent in this field have changed over time, potentially in relation to the ongoing neoliberalization of climate change politics. As scholars want to influence policy and industrial practice, their research implicitly reflects values consistent with the current political economic order. We conclude by highlighting the implications of these findings for the field of environmental social science.

The Title of the Growth of New Dynasties in Spain Maghrib and Iran

This research aims to examine the birth and development of new dynasties in the regions of the Spanish Maghrib and Iran after the collapse of major powers such as the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain and the Abbasid Caliphate in Iran. Employing a literature research approach, this study traces the background of the emergence, expansion processes, consolidation of power, as well as the contributions of these dynasties to the intellectual and cultural development in the regions they ruled. In the Spanish Maghrib, the Almoravid and Almohad Dynasties emerged as new powers after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate. Both dynasties succeeded in uniting the regions of Spain and the Maghrib, albeit with different methods and ideologies. Meanwhile, in Iran, the Ilkhanid, Jalayirid, Timurid, and Safavid Dynasties rose after the collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate, each exerting significant influence and contributions to the political, cultural, artistic, and scientific development. The research findings indicate that the birth and development of these new dynasties not only brought about political changes but also contributed significantly to intellectual and cultural advancements in both regions. The periods under their rule are known as golden ages in the fields of art, architecture, literature, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and other sciences. These dynasties fostered the exchange of ideas among various ethnic and religious groups and created a conducive environment for the growth of knowledge and creativity. Overall, this study highlights the importance of the new dynasties in the dynamics of history and civilization, as well as their contributions in shaping new political landscapes and catalyzing the growth of rich knowledge, art, and culture.

Jan Pajor, Great Britain’s Stance Towards Political Changes in China in the Years 1908–1909

Between 1908 and 1909, significant political changes took place in China. Following the death of the nominal sovereign, Guangxu, and the Empress Dowager Cixi, who exercised real power, the minor Puyi was selected as the new emperor. The regency was assumed by the weak and inept Prince Chun, who dismissed the most influential imperial dignitary, Yuan Shikai, in early 1909. When the second major dignitary, Zhang Zidong, died shortly later, the Beijing authorities found themselves in crisis. The article shows how Great Britain, which had the strongest position among the powers in China, reacted to these developments.

The Impact of Political Orientation and Government Change on Public Satisfaction with Food Policy in South Korea

This study investigates the relationship between political orientation, government change, and public satisfaction with food policies in the Republic of Korea. Utilizing data from the Consumer Behavior Survey for Foods (CBSF) conducted by the Korea Rural Economic Institute from 2020 to 2021, we employ fixed effects models to examine the impact of political orientation, the presence of a conservative government, and their interactions on satisfaction across various dimensions of food policy. We also analyze the change in satisfaction levels from 2020 to 2021 based on shifts in political orientation. The results reveal complex dynamics between political alignment, government performance, and public perceptions. While conservatives and liberals exhibit higher satisfaction with labeling policies, they show lower satisfaction with safety and redress policies. The presence of a conservative government is associated with higher satisfaction in specific policy areas but lower overall satisfaction. Changes in political orientation significantly influence policy satisfaction, with shifts away from conservatism and towards liberalism leading to decreased satisfaction. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the nuanced preferences of different political groups and the need for responsive and transparent food policy frameworks. This study advances the theoretical understanding of the political economy of policy satisfaction and provides novel policy implications for effective governance.

Displacement: Trauma of Partition in Intizar Husain's Basti

This paper examines the heartrending narrative of displacement in Intizar Husain's Basti (1979) through the concept of trauma of partition. Husain’s novel appears as a souvenir of the partition in front of readers. In the novel, Muslim narrator Zakir observes Pakistan's birth as a new nation in 1947. His migration to Pakistan from India after this political change represents the memory of the victims. Bangladesh emerged as a new nation in 1971 during his stay in Pakistan. These strange political upheavals create fear, disillusionment, and suspicion in the narrator’s mind. Therefore, this paper scrutinizes the reverberation of trauma in partition literature through Zakir’s narrative of displacement in Husain’s novel. As a qualitative applied research, the paper draws on ideas of trauma from Cathy Caruth and Jeffrey C. Alexander to analyze Zakir's story of displacement from India. Horrendous events and the period of their reverberation depend upon the intensity of the traumatic experience. The scene of Rupnagar represents Zakir’s memory of pre-partition but it triggers much when he experiences violence and war in Pakistan. The narrator’s dreadful experience survives in his diary, letters, and memoirs. By the way, this study aims to keep the memory of the victims alive to convey a message to the world. Partition is not only the division of geography, it is also the division of beautiful hearts. The division of a nation in the name of any banner obstructs political stability and the prosperity of humanity.

An Analysis of How TVET is Playing a Significant Role in Fostering Students’ Skills and Competencies in South Africa

It is generally acceptable that the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) plays a vital role in all aspects of the economy and the society at large in that it is a viable transformative tertiary educational institution for promoting and realising the South African government's developmental strategy and agenda. Essentially, it seeks to ensure that learners who failed to secure admission to the university still have the opportunity to go to tertiary institutions where they will learn and acquire skills and competency that will make them employable, be self-employed and become employers by creating jobs. Also, this paper shows that in the quest for economic growth and development, TVET has moved to the forefront of political changes aimed at eliminating poverty, unemployment, and inequality. More importantly, TVET positioned itself to address the government's developmental challenges and difficulties through the provision of high-quality education to students to skill and empower them. Against this backdrop, TVET continues to be a reliable institution to train and educate young people to build the ideal of a democratic developmental state.   Received: 5 July 2023 / Accepted: 21 April 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

Transitional Justice in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia in a Comparative Framework

This thesis aims to enhance transitional justice studies with a focus on the Balkan peninsula, by providing a comparative analysis of the extent of transitional justice mechanisms in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. With the fall of military dictatorships in Latin America in the 1980s, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the emergence of new states in the 1990s, the concept of Transitional Justice (TJ) saw a significant rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was further propelled by the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), the prolonged breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992) as well as the fall of the communist dictatorship in Albania (1990). The emergence of new states and the state-building processes that followed the political and social changes also brought new challenges and conflicts, although they marked the end of significantly repressive political regimes. Considering that the implementation of TJ has undergone several changes over time and is dependent on the different settings in which it was employed, it is necessary to conduct extensive comparative research to determine the extent to which TJ differs in post-communist and post-conflict nations. The study has developed three main hypotheses: (1) The limited achievement of lustration law in Albania has conditioned the current status of transitional justice; (2) The state-building process has contributed to the evolution of Transitional Justice in Kosovo; (3) The power-sharing process as a TJ pillar in North Macedonia has fueled TJ in the country. By utilizing a mixed methods approach, data was collected through elite interviews, conducted in the three countries with 44 representatives from academia, politics, media, and civil society. To conclude, two hypotheses are fully upheld in terms of the limited achievement of lustration law and its implications with the current status of transitional justice in Albania; and the contribution of state-building in Kosovo to the evolution of transitional justice. The third hypothesis related to the power-sharing process in North Macedonia as a fueling mechanism for the evolution of transitional justice is partially upheld.    Received: 13 February 2024 / Accepted: 30 April 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

Context matters: Rethinking resource governance theories for Mongolian pastoral systems

Globally, rangelands face interacting pressures from climate, land-use, socio-economic and political changes, all of which threaten herder livelihoods and grassland health. Given these dynamics, it is often unclear which policies would best support sustainable land use and livelihoods in the future. There are multiple theories for how tenure, rules, social relations and environmental variability intersect to influence pastoral resource governance, but these have largely been developed based on empirical data from specific social and environmental contexts. Few studies have attempted to evaluate empirically how the factors driving pastoral management decisions might vary across a social-ecological gradient. In this work we attempt to reconcile the current diversity of theories around pastoral resource governance with an empirical dataset on household herd and pasture management decisions in Mongolia, where there is ongoing debate over proposed rangeland policies, including formalization of land tenure. We assess the relationship between theorized predictors of herder behavior (i.e. formal rights, formal rules, social capital, and environmental variability), and household-level management decisions about pastoral mobility and storage. We compare our findings from a survey of 760 households across four ecozones to predictions from pastoral resource governance theories to assess which theories best match the complex realities on the ground. We observed a continuum of de facto pastoral governance regimes that roughly map onto a social-ecological gradient defined by (i) resource variability and predictability, and (ii) the relative prevalence of formal rule-based vs. implicit norm-based governance. We find that rules, social capital, and forage availability are the strongest predictors of whether a household will reserve forage, with consistent effects across ecological zones. In contrast, social ties and environmental conditions most strongly predict mobility practices. While most households reserved pastures regardless of tenure status, those households who do not reserve pastures are more likely to lack formal use rights. Our findings reinforce the importance of avoiding “one size fits all” rangeland governance policies. We demonstrate that herders make decisions in response to environmental productivity and variability over space and time, and that social ties and mobility are critical for maintaining access to forage. This may explain why many herders remain skeptical of formal pasture tenure, which could restrict this flexibility. Policies that ensure herders’ collective rights to pasture through large-scale zoning rather than tenure could potentially achieve both secure pasture rights and maximum flexibility.

Current and future development of thermal grids in Switzerland: an organizational perspective

IntroductionThermal grids are key to decarbonizing heating and cooling. However, their development is a complex socio-technical process. This study aims to (1) understand the thermal grid ecosystem’s development under changing political, economic and cultural frame conditions, (2) elicit actors’ perception of options for future development, and (3) identify concrete problem situations for the future development of thermal grids and describe how to address them.MethodsWe draw on 18 semi-structured interviews with decision-makers in utilities, municipal administrations, planning and engineering companies and intermediary organizations.ResultsWith increased strategic importance of thermal grids, the ecosystem has been in a phase of rapid growth and professionalization in the last 10–15 years. This is reflected in a rapid increase in the number of grids, but also in capability and capacity building and greater quality standards. This transformation has been supported by a resource pool (e.g., knowledge base, capacities and capabilities, networks or decision-support tools), built partly through the value network’s activities and partly through purposeful orchestration by associations, authorities, utilities and other actors. While policy developments, energy price fluctuations and changes in customer perceptions spurred demand, thermal grid development is limited by supply-side constraints, especially a skill shortage. Four interrelated problem situations were identified: (1) Municipalities lack the resources to manage the implementation of their energy strategies. (2) The modernization of thermal grids and integration of low-carbon heat sources entails high transaction costs. (3) The implementation of thermal grids is subject to delays and quality risks, with consequences for the timely achievement of decarbonization goals. (4) Customers face uncertainty on available options, as well as on the systemic impacts of their decisions.DiscussionBased on current practices, suggestions by the interviewees, as well as a comparison with the international literature, we identify four development areas to address these problem situations: (1) Empower and support municipalities. (2) Manage the scarcity of qualified workforce. (3) Leverage digital technology for the planning, realization and operation of thermal grids. (4) Pilot technological and organizational innovations together. This complements the set of previously suggested measures to support the development of thermal grids, which focused strongly on technical and regulatory aspects.

Contribution of Women in Political Movement of Nepal

This article explores the extraordinary contributions made by women to Nepal's political movement, demonstrating their fundamental influence on the political climate of the nation. The study investigates the varied political activism of Nepalese women through an analysis of historical accounts, academic research, and direct testimonies. In Nepal, women have been instrumental in political movements, community mobilization, and advocacy for social and political change. They have actively taken part in protests, rallies, and neighborhood campaigns, pushing back against patriarchal conventions and clamoring for equitable participation in governmental organizations. In order to advance gender equality and women's rights in the political sphere, the article examines the effects of women's organizations, women-led projects, and female activists. It looks at their initiatives to remove social constraints, boost women's political participation, and combat gender-based prejudice. This article also examines the obstacles women have had to overcome while examining the crucial role they have played in Nepal's political movement and their contributions to constitutional changes. The paper offers insights on the empowerment of women within the Nepali political system by a thorough analysis of scholarly research, historical records, and documented experiences.

Living ghosts and the Laapata: the episode of genocide continuum in Pakistani art

ABSTRACT The systematic disappearance of individuals is very much a global phenomenon. In Pakistan, this phenomenon re-emerged after Pakistan decided to get involved in the U.S.-led ‘war on terror’ in the wake of 9/11. This paper exposes the politics of necropolitics in Pakistan through art, as death plays a significant role in setting up a political change. I contend that Ramla Fatima’s artworks put a human face to death and speak truth to power, to draw on Foucault, interlinking death with politics to expose the hiding and camouflaging of death in Pakistan. Fatima’s artworks represent another episode of the genocide continuum in Pakistan – the unending enforced disappearances and the sufferings of the families of the laapata – the disappeared. By painting necropolitics, she transgresses the silencing culture, a legacy of enforced disappearances. Through art, she illustrates how victims and their families are condemned to a state of subalternity and ambiguity – ambiguous loss, slow violence and torture, and psychological scars. Her artworks also draw attention to the role of expressive art in evoking awareness of human rights violations and establishing the fact that the laapata’s lives matter.

From torches to trees: Political party logo changes and voter perception

Logos are a prominent visual signal used by virtually every European political party. Most of these parties have also changed their logo at some point in their history. Despite the ubiquitousness of both logos and logo changes, little is known about voter attitudes towards this element of the party brand. To examine these questions, we first provide a theoretical framework that can be used to understand party logos and logo changes. We then implement a survey experiment in the United Kingdom to determine if voters notice these logo changes, how these may affect the issues that voters associate with the party, and how competent they perceive the party to be on these issues. Our findings provide suggestive evidence that voters notice and consider changes to the party logo, and that these changes can alter the issues that voters associate with the party. These findings provide the groundwork for future studies on party logos.

The Talyshis: An Iranian people divided by the Araxes

This paper examines the Talyshi people, an Iranian ethnic group divided by the Araxes River between Azerbaijan and Iran. The division, a result of the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813), placed the Talyshis within two distinct political and cultural paradigms. The northern Talyshis, under the successive rule of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and Azerbaijan, were confronted with a Turkish political and cultural orientation that contrasted with their Iranian linguistic and cultural heritage. This orientation led to significant shifts in identity, with the Talyshis becoming minorities within a Turkic-speaking, Turkish-oriented Azerbaijan. Southern Talyshis who remained in Iran experienced a more consistent cultural development within the Iranian paradigm, despite political changes. This study examines the impact of these divisions on Talyshi identity, language preservation and socio-cultural adaptation. It discusses the challenges of assimilation and cultural preservation faced by the Talyshis, their linguistic characteristics, and the revival of Talysh self-awareness and nationalism in the face of external pressures. The paper uses a comprehensive analysis of historical, linguistic and ethnographic data to provide insights into the resilience of Talysh identity amidst political and cultural change.

The ideological and artistic features of the travelogues about Turkey in the Russian parent state literature of the 1920s (based on Summer in Angora by E. Lanceray and Istanbul and Turkey by P. Pavlenko)

The article discusses the travelogues of Turkey by E. Lanceray and P. Pavlenko. If, until 1917, the Russian literature had described Turkey from the ethnographical and geographic perspectives or had made it a part of modernist vision, in the 1920s, the authors wrote mainly about its political, social and cultural changes. The aim of the article is to analyze Turkey’s image in the parent state literature of the 1920s, close the lacuna in its Asian text and form a more complete understanding of the Russian literary process of that period. The article uses the descriptive, biographical and culture-historical methods of research. It concludes that so different writers as Lanceray and Pavlenko representing the unlike generations and artistic worlds and making different accents in their writings – on ethnography and the formation of a new statehood, respectively – are prone to interpret the revolutionary changes taking place in Turkey optimistically. Therefore, the Turkish motive and thematic vector should be viewed as a relevant stage of forming the ideology and aesthetics of a new artistic method, which is to be known as socialist realism subsequently.