This article on the role of leadership in government development status and policies since independence in Nigeria investigates leadership, governance, and provides an overview of key development policies in Nigeria. The paper conceptualised leadership and national development. The paper uses secondary sources of data collection and was analysed. The Finding shows that the nature of the Nigerian state evolved a predatory political class that was concerned with power struggle, consolidation, alignment and realignment in the context of hegemonic control. The political elite is not a productive class, but relies on the control of state structures to access economic rewards. The paper provided a way forward that the political leaders, governance practitioners in both the public and private sectors and other stakeholders need to rededicate themselves by embracing some core ethical values and norms which are essential to nation building, political stability, progress and development. The paper concluded that in the 21st century, Nigeria faces both daunting challenges and transformative opportunities. The emergence of a more informed citizenry, technological innovation, and global partnerships offers new avenues for inclusive growth.

This study explores the digital transformation practices of rural micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) food processing products associated with the Kediri Young Entrepreneur (KYE) Association. This study investigates how MSME practitioners integrate digital technologies at both the micro and macro levels. For example, they use instant messaging apps to coordinate and make group decisions, social media sites to create content, build brands, and gain market visibility through algorithms, e-marketplaces to make transactions easier and grow the market, and digital payment systems to connect operations. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s practice theory, this qualitative interpretive study analyzes how digitalization intersects with structure and agency and how social networks emerge among actors in rural MSME food-processing product production. This study reveals several important finding: (1) digital habitus is formed through an integrated, evolving structure in which repeated digital practices become internalized dispositions; (2) there is a symbolic struggle in the form of a struggle for power over digital technology capabilities among MSME food processing products actors; (3) strategic mobilization in the form of economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital to gain legitimacy, strengthen capital and competitive advantage. This study concludes that digital transformation, showed up in regular digital coordination, platform-based marketing, marketplace integration, and digital money management, is not merely a technical shift but also a social transformation reflecting the cultural tendencies, power structures, and strategic actions actors in MSME food processing product markets, where the KYE Association serves as an arena that bridges collective traditions with digital innovation

This study provides a rigorous sociolinguistic examination of the constitutive role of language in the ongoing socio-political conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, positing digital activism as a primary site of discursive struggle. While scholarship has addressed historical-political dimensions, a significant gap persists in the empirical analysis of the micro-linguistic strategies through which vernacular practices enact ideological resistance and counter-hegemonic mobilisation (Blommaert, 2005; Kroskrity, 2000). Employing an integrated mixed-methods framework that synergizes Corpus Linguistics with Critical Discourse Analysis (Baker, Gabrielatos, KhosraviNik, Krzy?anowski, McEnery, & Wodak, 2008), this research analyses a specialised digital corpus of approximately 1,200 text-based items from social media, activist communiqués, and transcribed audio (2020–2025)—the Anglophone Digital Activism Corpus (ADAC). Quantitative keyword and collocation analyses identify statistically significant patterns, while subsequent qualitative analysis, guided by Systemic Functional Linguistics’ transitivity model (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) and social actor representation (van Leeuwen, 2008), performs close readings. The findings reveal a deliberate linguistic architecture characterised by three core mechanisms: the consistent grammatical positioning of collective Anglophone actors as active agents in material processes; the strategic deployment of code-mixing and lexical innovation, using Cameroonian Pidgin English and Camfranglais to create an exclusive, authentic discursive space (Gumperz, 1982); and the use of conceptual metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) such as EDUCATION IS SOVEREIGNTY to reframe political grievances into mobilising narratives. This paper argues that digital activism in this context is fundamentally a sociolinguistic project, contributing an empirical model for analysing the interface of grammar, digital communication, and political conflict, affirming that the struggle for power is intrinsically a struggle over representation and linguistic resource mobilisation (Bourdieu, 1991).

Private investment in residential long-term care has surged around the world. Growing evidence shows that this is changing the institutional logic and the inner workings of the sector, prioritising the financial interests of asset holders above those of other stakeholders (eg. clients, care professionals and regulators). We know little about how policy makers and regulators are responding to private investment and profit-making in the long-term care sector. This paper addresses that gap by analysing policies prompting the growth of private investment and profit-making in residential long-term care, the emerging power struggles in some cases between asset holders and other stakeholders in long-term care, the controversies that have arisen and the concomitant responses of regulators and policy makers in Ontario (Canada), Lombardy (Italy), the Netherlands and England (United Kingdom). We show that the institutional context (eg. legal frameworks, policies and regulations) shapes controversies concerning quality, accessibility and affordability of care, and argue that regulators and policymakers in the constituencies we studied are responding reactively to such controversies rather than proactively anticipating and preventing unwanted effects. Our analysis provides policymakers with valuable insights regarding the regulation and governance of private investment and profit-making in the residential long-term care sector.

This study analyzes George Orwell's novel Animal Farm as a reflection of social conflicts in the 1917 Russian Revolution using M.H. Abrams' mimetic approach. The novel functions as an allegory, with Mr. Jones representing Tsar Nicholas II, Snowball as Leon Trotsky, and Napoleon as Joseph Stalin. Through the mimetic approach, this research identifies how the rebellion, power struggles, and the corruption of revolutionary ideals are depicted in the novel, ultimately leading to dictatorship that mirrors the regime they initially rejected. Orwell highlights how the revolution's original vision of equality was ultimately betrayed by the new leaders. The findings of this study show that Animal Farm not only critiques Stalinism but also reflects broader social and political phenomena related to the concentration of power, abuse of authority, and the cyclical nature of power in history. This study supports mimetic theory by demonstrating how literature can deeply reflect historical realities, contributing to the discourse in both literature and politics, and serving as a reminder of the dangers of authoritarianism.

This article explores how symbolic and cultural capitals shape the perceptions of Ukrainian political elites regarding Russia as a geopolitical threat, focusing on the transformations since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the paper argues that elite perceptions are not only reactions to external events but also products of internal struggles within the political field, influenced by elites’ positions, accumulated capitals, and embodied experiences. The article also integrates a postcolonial perspective to examine how the legacy of Russian imperialism continues to affect Ukraine’s political elites, shaping their identity, legitimacy, and responses to the evolving threat. This relational analysis provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of national identity, memory politics, and power struggles in postcolonial and post-Soviet contexts, highlighting the role of symbolic hierarchies in the construction of political authority and threat narratives.

Global intersecting crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, and the shrinking of civic space, increasingly unveil and amplify deep systemic inequalities. A growing body of literature shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the learning and development of young children, especially for those already experiencing inequalities. This article draws on a critical discourse analysis of a literature review commissioned by the Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry. It operationalises a critical epistemic justice lens to consider the epistemic politics in research literature and wider social discourses about early childhood education, during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis shows that young children, particularly from minoritised groups, are routinely excluded from knowledge production processes. We suggest reevaluating how ‘evidence gaps’ are framed and avoiding reductionist, individualistic approaches to generating knowledge about complex social issues. We discuss how emotional constructions of childhood as a site of social intervention and control, amplified by alarmist narratives about childhoods in decline, further undermine children’s epistemic agency.

This study investigates how judicial independence is discursively constructed and contested following controversial rulings by Indonesia’s Constitutional Court. Drawing on theories of legal realism, neo-institutionalism, and discourse analysis, the research explores whether formal guarantees of judicial autonomy hold symbolic weight amid growing perceptions of political alignment. Using a qualitative case study approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with legal scholars, civil society actors, and journalists, complemented by discourse analysis of court rulings and media texts. Findings reveal that the Court’s independence is widely framed as situational, with legitimacy perceived to fluctuate based on alignment with dominant political interests. Respondents highlighted themes of strategic judicial reasoning, media-driven delegitimization, and performative institutional responses, suggesting that public trust is shaped less by institutional design and more by narrative coherence and interpretive transparency. Rather than neutral arbiters, courts are increasingly viewed as political actors embedded within broader struggles for power. The study contributes to literature on judicial politicization and democratic resilience by emphasizing the role of discourse in shaping perceptions of legality and legitimacy. It also offers practical insights for reform, including the need for transparent appointments and greater communicative accountability. The findings suggest that in hybrid regimes, judicial independence must be understood not only as a structural condition but as an ongoing, contested performance shaped by elite discourse, public critique, and symbolic legitimacy.

Rentier states, by relying on revenues derived from natural resources rather than citizen taxation, construct a distinctive rentier social contract, ideally exchanging welfare provisions and subsidies for political loyalty. In such systems, a patrimonial rather than democratic social contract emerges, reducing citizens to passive clients and undermining the fundamental principles of democratic governance, such as transparency and accountability. Where citizenship is degraded to clientelism and rights are treated as revocable privileges, civil society is not merely an amalgam of service-oriented organizations; it becomes a hegemonic battlefield in the Gramscian sense—potentially transcending its conventional intermediary role and emerging as a workshop for constructing alternatives. Therefore, this article, employing a qualitative approach, argues that the primary function of civil society in rentier states is not necessarily to engage in direct power struggles (a war of manoeuvre), but rather to conduct a protracted war of position aimed at eroding the ideological and/or cultural foundations of the rentier order. The findings prove that the success of civil society in such contexts is not measured by immediate political changes, but by its ability to reshape the societal “software”—transforming the citizen’s identity from a passive beneficiary to an active, rights-bearing agent. It is through this transformative function that civil societies lay the human and institutional foundations necessary for meaningful political transitions during critical junctures.

The core of international competition in the digital age has shifted to the struggle for rule-making power. As the principal actors, the United States, China, and the European Union are reshaping the global digital order through digital public diplomacy. From a political economy perspective, this paper constructs a three-dimensional analytical framework—"Strategic Positioning-Rule Tools-Efficacy Analysis"—to examine the divergent strategies of these three actors in the realms of technical standards, data governance, and digital trade. The study finds that the United States leverages value-based alliances to promote exclusive rule hegemony, China achieves breakthroughs through development-oriented alternative rules, and the EU constructs standard barriers by capitalizing on its normative power. The contest for rule-making authority is, in essence, a process of reconstructing power structures in the digital age, the outcomes of which will profoundly shape the landscape of global digital governance. Developing countries must seek strategic autonomy amid great power rule competition, enhancing their rule-making influence through technological localization and multilateral cooperation.

ABSTRACT This article introduces ‘Multiepistemicism’, theorising it as the condition and process whereby multiple epistemologies, which are simultaneously negotiated, entangled, contested, silenced, fragmented, disrupted, affirmed, and rearticulated, coexist and dynamically interweave, shaping conceptualisation, analysis, interpretation, and expression across different levels of social organization, from individual cognition to institutional structures, and across heterogeneous modalities such as linguistic, cultural, artistic, and performative practices. To exemplify this framework, the article investigates individuals’ epistemic labour within their multilingual habits, showing how using different languages and the dynamics between them (e.g. power struggle, local/foreign, instrumentality) shape the ongoing and multidirectional influence among language, epistemology, knowledge, and reality. This study draws on in-depth interviews with university students from several Moroccan universities where Arabic, French, and English serve as mediums of instruction. Findings reveal that (a) multilingualism actively contributes to multiepistemicism (in terms of epistemic plurality) at the level of knowledge reception and consumption, but not knowledge production (reasoning and generation of ideas), (b) the language used to learn and express certain knowledge does not entail any form of classification or ranking of that knowledge by the students, and (c) the power struggle among languages is not reflected in how students evaluate various perspectives and ideas they encounter.

This paper analyzes culture as a domain of symbolic and power struggles, tracing its conceptual evolution from the hierarchical framework of The Age of Enlightenment to contemporary theoretical approaches that conceptualize it as a dynamic system of signification (GEERTZ, 2008; THOMPSON, 1990). Although its formal recognition as a fundamental right under Article 215 of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, culture was not concomitantly established by the State as an economically strategic sector. This contradiction is reflected in the negligible budget allocations observed over the nearly 40 years following the enactment of the Constitution. The lack of financial resources, in terms of Bourdieu’s (1989) analysis of symbolic power, contributes to the reproduction of inequalities by failing to designate culture as a legitimate field within the Brazilian State’s budgetary context. This scenario reveals a fundamental structural tension: whereas the 1988 Constitution formally advocates cultural diversity, public policies remain ineffective owing to insufficient budgetary allocations, thereby perpetuating culture as a contested arena in which identities, resources, and narratives are negotiated under conditions of profound structural inequality.

Internal party conflict is a recurring phenomenon in multiparty democracies. This phenomenon is centered on the struggle for power and control, which all party governments and non-party governments coveted. This has led to party disorganization, fractionalization, and the movement of party members to other political parties, thereby leading to the proliferation of more political parties by some party founders and chieftains in order to realize their political ambitions, despite the enormous resources and sacrifices they made on the old party platforms. The paper argues that internal conflicts have affected party organizations cum members with several consequences on democracy and delivery of democratic governance because the party governments have concentrated their attention on the crises in their political parties, as opposed to the provision of public utilities such as infrastructure, healthcare system, security, goods, and social services. The effect of internal crises made the ruling political parties, nationally and state-wise, contribute largely to poor governance in the country. The paper concludes that the internal conflicts in party system in Nigeria can be eliminated if the party organizations adhere to extant laws and believe in the sanctity of democracy that a loser in an electoral contest can actually become a winner someday as well as to concentrate on the provision of democratic dividends for the people of Nigeria.

ABSTRACT Water scarcity in Central Asia has intensified due to uneven distribution, population growth, and competing demands for hydroelectric power and agriculture. This paper examines transboundary water management in the region through the lenses of realism and liberal institutionalism, focusing on Uzbekistan's diplomatic shift, the Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border disputes, and Afghanistan's Qosh Tepa Canal project. Realism highlights power struggles and zero‐sum competition over water resources, whereas liberal institutionalism emphasizes the role of regional institutions, such as the Consultative Meetings of Central Asian Presidents, in fostering cooperation. The study reveals that although diplomatic efforts have resolved some conflicts, emerging challenges like the Qosh Tepa Canal underscore the need for stronger governance frameworks. By comparing Central Asia's water politics with other regions, the paper argues that a balance between power dynamics and institutional cooperation is essential for sustainable water management.

ABSTRACT While status has long been recognised as a key driver of alliance formation, how relative status between a pair of firms shape their willingness to collaborate remains scant. We argue that when two firms possess similar status, competition for dominance may trigger a power struggle, whereas a large status difference may evoke concerns of a power grab. The interplay of these opposing forces leads to an optimal level of status similarity that facilitates alliance formation. Using investment data from 1,015 venture capital (VC) firms in China, we find empirical evidence that status similarity exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with the likelihood of syndication between a pair of VC firms. Moreover, the mobility of managers between VC firms attenuates this curvilinear relationship by bridging relational boundaries and mitigating power concerns. Our study advances the status and alliance formation literature by revealing how the joint effects of power struggle and power grab mechanisms, triggered by relative status differences, shape interfirm collaboration and by highlighting the central role of managers in mitigating these concerns.

Abstract What is the relationship between the decline of global governance (GG), the rise of a systemic conflict, the fading away of the liberal international order (LIO) and the increased pressure on international organizations (IO) under pressure? How do we relate these developments to hegemonic decline and the declining attractiveness of the liberal script? I aim to analyze the relationship of these often-conflated concepts with the NALFI framework. Applying the framework leads me to three substantial arguments. First, at the end of the 20th century, an LIO emerged, which was characterized by a GG system. This system carried the seeds of contestation and decline within it. Second, as a consequence, a systemic conflict similar to the one between the socialist and the liberal capitalist world in the second half of the 20th century seemed to emerge. In this constellation, the hegemon and its liberal-democratic allies aim to maintain the LIO against autocratic contestations and attacks. Third, the success of authoritarian forces within liberal democracies, including their rise to power—Modi, Orban, and Trump are only the best-known names standing for this development—has changed the situation again. We seem to be moving to a world in which a purely bilateral hegemonic conflict between the USA and China is embedded in a tripartite ideological structure with populist authoritarians, bureaucratic authoritarians, and liberal democracies as the major players. This most recent development may lead back to the 19th century when an ongoing power struggle led to a Concert with little underlying normativity.

By 2018, techlash had opened a possible crisis for Silicon Valley’s technology industry, otherwise resolutely committed to selling imagined technofutures. No company or celebrified founder has borne the brunt of public opinion’s pendulum swings as much as Facebook, Inc. and Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg’s rebranding of Facebook, Inc. to Meta in 2021 is a case study for how Silicon Valley’s industry and elite recuperatively make and remake their ideology—the industry’s defining feature—against a critical broader public and techlash discourse through regressive futuring. With textual analysis of Zuckerberg’s rebranding keynote, I map the limited, familiar repertoire of storylines and stages in selective response to techlash critique with (1) (attempted) recuperative humor of geek masculinity, (2) perfunctory acknowledgements of governance made visible through infrastructure, and (3) intra-industry power struggles. Regressive futuring—familiar dramaturgical regimes and recycled charisma—foregrounds how failures to perform become a failure of Silicon Valley’s meaning-making, as these repeated performances are the industry’s active, attempted sutures against substantive reckoning with Big Tech’s illogics.

Abstract In sociology, aesthetics have become an important lens for exploring the sensory dimensions of political and economic processes, with research on urban aesthetics contributing significantly to this field. However, much of this work focuses on how aesthetic forms serve the interests of political and economic elites, portraying aesthetic value as a direct product of political ideologies. While these approaches have shown that urban aesthetics are shaped by power struggles, they pay limited theoretical attention to less straightforward aspects of aesthetic politics—such as cases where clashing values, imperatives, and commitments meet. This gap is particularly pronounced in places shaped by violent histories, where the value of urban beauty might be inevitably entangled with loss, ambivalence, and co-existence with unwanted materialities. This article proposes an approach that foregrounds the dilemmas and compromises inherent in urban aesthetic politics, focusing on the varied practices through which people negotiate how to care for urban aesthetic value over time. I develop this approach through a case study of Klaipėda, Lithuania—a city shaped by layered aesthetic transformations, from state annexation to socialist modernisation to post-Soviet nation-building and Europeanisation. Using mixed-methods research, the article highlights differences in how people articulate what counts as good and bad aesthetics and which forms of material care—or neglect—are “appropriate” to sustain the city’s desirable aesthetic appeal. In doing so, the article reveals complex gradations of value underlying seemingly coherent aesthetic ideals of Europeanness.

The Bugis Pinisi, formerly the pinnacle of traditional Nusantara maritime technology, has evolved from a practical sailing craft into a cultural symbol and aesthetic component in the visual communication design of South Sulawesi. This alteration encompasses not just aesthetic aspects but also reflects social, economic, and political dynamics, wherein the Pinisi symbol serves as a medium for negotiating meaning and the struggle for symbolic power. This study employs Pierre Bourdieu's framework of field, habitus, and symbolic capital to elucidate how the visual depiction of the Pinisi is shaped by the interactions among various actors, including the government, designers, tourism stakeholders, and artisan groups. The maritime habitus of the Bugis people serves as an essential foundation, augmented by qualitative visual analysis techniques grounded in multimodality within Visual Communication Design theory. The results show that Pinisi pictures experience stylization, deformation, and alteration to align with contemporary marketing requirements, frequently altering historical values into market narratives. The preeminence of governmental and economic entities reinforces the hierarchy of symbolic authority, whilst the participation of traditional groups is constrained. The innovation of this research lies in the concept of Visual Capital Translation, which entails transforming cultural-symbolic capital into visual capital that is versatile in both local and global contexts, while preserving its inherent legitimacy. This research highlights the importance of inclusive design choices in preserving the authenticity and relevance of Pinisi

This article examines Daniel 10 as a key witness to the formation of early Jewish apocalyptic literature. The chapter portrays Daniel as a sage whose encounter with a celestial messenger prepares him to guide his community. Narratively, this scene introduces the final revelation of Daniel 11–12; ideologically, it expresses the authors’ conviction that access to the heavenly realm is achieved through scribal discipline and engagement with inherited traditions. The study advances two related contributions. Drawing on recent reassessments of apocalyptic origins—especially insights from Aramaic texts at Qumran—the study offers a new analysis of intertextuality in Daniel 10, highlighting how apocalyptic writing predates the persecutions of Antiochus IV and is developed through the reinterpretation of authoritative Scriptures in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. Daniel’s profile aligns with elite temple-based scribes who operated across imperial and cultic settings and used apocalyptic discourse in intra-Judean power struggles. In addition, the reference to the Tigris in Dan 10:4 is reinterpreted in light of Seleucia-on-Tigris, whose culturally hybrid environment illuminates the cosmopolitan backdrop of the maśkîlîm traditions.