Japan’s criminal justice system is undergoing a historic transformation. To address shifts in crime demographics, an aging prison population, and the need to improve judicial efficiency, Japan has implemented several major reforms. Among these, the revision of the Sentence Reduction Act, scheduled for implementation in 2025, combined with the plea-bargaining system introduced in 2018, constitutes the core of Japan’s criminal justice modernization. These reforms not only transform the way sentences are enforced but also redefine the practical logic of criminal prosecution. The context for these reforms is complex and diverse. On the one hand, Japan faces an aging prison population, with many elderly inmates unable to work, making traditional corporal punishment difficult to enforce. On the other hand, high recidivism rates raise public doubts about the effectiveness of rehabilitation. Furthermore, traditional investigative methods are limited in their effectiveness against highly concealed crimes, such as organized and corporate crime, necessitating new judicial tools. These factors are collectively driving changes in Japan’s criminal justice system. This article aims to comprehensively analyze the core elements of the 2025 revision of Japan’s Sentence Reduction Act, including how it will work in conjunction with the judicial bargaining system, the potential social challenges it will bring, and propose corresponding optimization paths. The research not only helps to understand the direction of Japan’s criminal justice reform but also provides a comparative legal reference for similar reforms in other countries.

This research was conducted to make empirical findings on the persistence of Examination Malpractices (EMs) among students of higher institutions in Nigeria using the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) as a point of reference. A total of 466 participants responded to the online structured questionnaire disseminated through the social media platforms of WhatsApp and the Telegram over a period of three months (June- August, 2025). The data were analysed using SPSS package involving the use of chi-square for categorical data. Findings revealed that cheating in examination remains persistence because of systemic abnormalities which include some parents and staff who aid and abet cheating in examination as well as a lack of adequate facilities and unconducive environments for examinations The study recommends among other things that all stakeholders should be held accountable in issues of examination misconduct and adequate punishment measure be meted out to all perpetrators. It also recommends that the governments at all levels should prioritize improvements in the learning environment as well as ensuring the availability of appropriate facilities.

Flood disasters, as one of the major impacts of climate change, often exert significant pressure on rice-farming communities, particularly in sustaining production and ensuring food security. Strengthening the resilience of farmer groups in flood-prone areas requires targeted learning processes and well-structured social organization. These two aspects are essential in enhancing resilience through: a) The selection of rice varieties adaptive to climate change and b) The utilization of social institutions to address flood challenges. The Dosen Pulang Kampung (Dospulkam) program of IPB University was implemented in Ciuyah Village, Cirebon regency, to facilitate resilience improvement among rice farmer groups through an integrated training program. The training encompassed the selection of rice varieties and the enhancement of farmer group capacity in managing irrigation resources. The integrated training was conducted from 7‒9 July 2025. The method was conducted through focus group discussions (FGDs), small group discussions, lectures, field surveys, and the distribution of stimulus assistance in the form of IPB 9G seeds, IPB 13S seeds, and IPB 9G rice. Training participants were organized at two levels: group and village. At the community level, 23 community participants represented eight groups from the village; meanwhile, decision-makers, including the village government, the Combined Farmers Group, and village extension workers, were also involved. The results indicated that farmer groups developed a strong understanding of the use of IPB 9G as a climate-smart variety and optimized collective action through social institutions to address irrigation channel constraints. This program has contributed to enhancing the adaptive capacity of rice farmer groups to flood disasters caused by climate change.

This article examines the positioning of social issues within Russian public discourse during the First World War. By analyzing the public deliberation surrounding war-related social problems, the authors trace the impact of this discourse on the nascent configuration of Russia’s social welfare institutions. The study draws upon archival materials from the State Duma and State Council, sessions of the Supreme Council for the Relief of Mobilized Families, congresses and conferences of public organizations, as well as records from the Zemstvo Union and the Union of Cities. Methodologically, the research is grounded in deliberative democracy theory, which frames governance as the outcome of dialogue between state authorities and civil society. The analysis reveals that politically engaged segments of Russian society repeatedly addressed the issue of social support for war victims, advocating for modifications to the existing system of relief in order to expand social guarantees. Crucially, the public sphere witnessed the formation of a demand for the recognition of assistance to those affected by the war as a state obligation. The model that emerged envisioned direct relief efforts being administered by local self-governance bodies, supported by state funding. The authors conclude that the procedural formality of this dialogue, and the organizational involvement of state authorities in addressing social problems, indicate a discernible degree of democratization within the political sphere.

ABSTRACT This article argues that the decolonisation of European empires influenced the origins and spread of environmentalism throughout the world in the 1960s and 1970s. It demonstrates how many of the social movements and institutions associated with decolonistion – such as civil rights activism, the criticism of imperialism, and the growth of international nongovernmental and intergovernmental organisations – inspired and shaped environmentalism globally. The rich historical connections between decolonisation and environmentalism have been obscured because histories of American environmentalism, which predominantly shaped global histories of environmentalism, favoured ‘bottom-up’ grassroots activist viewpoints and downplayed both global influences and ‘top-down’ institutional variants of environmentalism. Adding decolonisation to the history of environmentalism, this article concludes, allows historians to integrate bottom-up social activism and top-down institutional dynamics in different parts of the world within their proper global context.

Abstract How did the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) survive the Colombian state counterinsurgency campaign? This article introduces the concept of counterinsurgency at work as a dynamic that captures the interaction between the practices of the adaptation strategies deployed by the FARC-EP, specifically increased mobility and quarantine, and the Colombian state counterinsurgency efforts from the late 1990s to the 2010s. I argue that the FARC-EP deployed adaptation strategies in response to a modernized Colombian military apparatus by repurposing and incorporating new roles, practices, and rules, which nonetheless had multiple, contradictory effects on this group's inner workings. Evidence from life histories with former FARC-EP combatants and retired personnel from the Colombian armed forces demonstrates this interplay. Life histories with ex-combatants shed light on how increased mobility and quarantine played out in the everyday with contradictory effects. For instance, while both created bonding and readiness, they disrupted socialization institutions and fractured ties with the local population. Retired military personnel's life histories show the different counterinsurgency strategies the Colombian state simultaneously deployed against the FARC-EP, prompting its adaptation capabilities. This article contributes to ongoing discussions on the transformations of armed organizations during the war. It also advances insurgent adaptability scholarship by examining the life histories of participants from both sides of the Colombian armed conflict.

This article offers an innovative way to teach an introductory sociology course by taking seriously C. Wright Mills’s dictum that the sociological imagination can be found at the nexus of history and biography. Indeed, introductory sociological concepts can be taught using a biography as the central text. To illustrate the idea, I describe my experience teaching a course titled “The Sociological Imagination” in which students read The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley over the course of the semester. The book is well adapted to a sociology course because the chapters each seem to engage a different social institution. By tracking the life of Malcolm X, students can learn about and discuss race, class, gender, urban life, criminal justice, religion, social movements, media, sports, transnationalism, and more. By multiple evaluative mechanisms, the course was successful in sparking student interest, teaching sociological concepts, and conveying the sociological imagination.

This study examines the integration of zakat and social work as a foundational approach to poverty reduction in Kano State, Nigeria, where more than 60% of the population lives below the poverty line, despite zakat collections estimated at approximately 10 billion annually. Employing a descriptive survey design with stratified random sampling, data were collected from 384 respondents across nine local government areas. The study assessed the effectiveness of zakat distribution, the role of social work interventions, and the potential impact of their integrated application using a validated research instrument (IZSWOPAKS; Cronbach's alpha = 0.81). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests at the p < 0.05 significance level. The findings revealed persistent inefficiencies in zakat distribution, particularly in terms of timeliness, adequacy, and transparency. Respondents overwhelmingly expressed strong support for integrating zakat and social work, citing improved targeting of beneficiaries, more holistic support mechanisms, and greater prospects for sustainable poverty alleviation. The study concludes that integrating zakat's faith-based redistributive framework with professional social work practices offers a more effective and sustainable strategy for poverty reduction in Kano State. This study recommends structured institutional collaboration between zakat management bodies and social work institutions to strengthen and enhance economic empowerment initiatives.

Folk and tribal arts constitute an integral component of indigenous social life, functioning not merely as aesthetic practices but as systems of knowledge, cultural memory, and social organization. This paper presents an in-depth sociological study of folk and tribal art traditions in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh, a predominantly tribal region inhabited mainly by Gond, Baiga, Bharia, and other indigenous communities. The study examines the distinctive art forms practiced by each tribe—such as Gond painting, Baiga wall art, ritual body tattooing, folk music, and dance—and situates them within their respective social, religious, ecological, and economic contexts. Using qualitative research methods including ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews, life-history narratives, and visual analysis of art forms, the paper analyzes how tribal art reflects social structure, gender roles, collective belief systems, and community-based modes of production. Drawing upon sociological theories of cultural functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, the study argues that tribal art in Mandla operates as a living social institution that sustains cultural continuity and reinforces collective identity. A central contribution of this paper lies in its analysis of the dynamic interrelationship between tribal art and regional folk art. Rather than treating them as separate cultural categories, the study demonstrates that folk and tribal arts in Mandla exist along a cultural continuum shaped by shared rituals, festivals, ecological settings, and inter-community interaction. The paper further examines the impact of modernization, state intervention, and market integration on indigenous art practices, highlighting both opportunities for economic empowerment and risks of symbolic dilution and cultural commodification. By foregrounding indigenous perspectives and contextualizing art within everyday social life, this study contributes to global sociological debates on indigenous knowledge systems, cultural sustainability, and the sociology of art in non-Western societies. The findings underscore the need to recognize tribal and folk arts not merely as heritage objects but as dynamic social processes essential to cultural resilience in an era of rapid globalization.

Digital technologies and artificial intelligence, which are increasingly used to address general tasks across all areas of society, may also serve as technical means for enforcing the rights of children and separatelyliving parents to maintain contact with one another. Delineating the internationally recognized conceptual model of “virtual parenting” as an additional means of communication between a child and a parent residing separately, the study substantiates the possibility of applying such a model to the construction of family relationships and corresponding regulation at the conflict stage within the Russian legal framework. Using a formal legal methodology, the author provides a comparative legal review of the application of contemporary foreign applications (software programs) designed to ensure a neutral digital environment for such communication. Due to the need for “fine-tuning” interpersonal relationships within the framework of the family, representing one of the most complex social institutions, works from other disciplines—primarily psychology and sociology—were also analyzed. The need to develop and implement a state-run online platform—provisionally entitled “The Territory of Family Communication and Trust”— powered by artificial intelligence for enabling virtual communication between a child and a parent is outlined. An examination of law enforcement and judicial practice demonstrates that, despite modern legal systems formally granting a separately residing parent the right to communicate with—and participate in the upbringing of—a child, in cases of resistance by the other parent, the practical realization of this right becomes difficult and, in some cases, impossible. It is argued that, in certain cases, access to such a platform should be granted to state authorities (for example, bailiffs), and that digital reports generated by the platform should be endowed with evidentiary legal force. It is concluded that, in the digital era, it is necessary to leverage the capabilities of technologies and artificial intelligence to support family and society institutionally through a more flexible mechanism for enforcing the right to family communication and preventing potential abuses by one of the parents.

The development of modern society directly depends on effective science communication, which affects all social institutions, cultural practices and economic processes. Its important function is to provide society with reliable scientific knowledge, which contributes to improving the level of education, the formation of a scientific worldview and an adequate assessment of the achievements of science and technology. On the other hand, the processes taking place in society – in the political, socio-e conomic, and technological spheres – determine the conditions for the development of science communication and the dissemination of scientific knowledge among the general population. The unique challenges typical of any state determine the level of development of science communication. For example, in Brazil, in conditions of social inequality and geographical extent that limit access to scientific infrastructure for different segments of the population, science communication has its own specifics, for example: high-quality scientific education and the latest research are available to privileged strata. Brazil’s vast territory and uneven distribution of scientific centers create natural barriers to information exchange, etc. In light of these problems, public libraries can serve as a bridge between the science community and the public, traditionally acting as intermediaries between recorded knowledge and society. The article is a review, which describes the development of science communication in Brazil, as well as ways to spread scientific knowledge in the country. Special attention is paid to the participation of libraries in science communication. The review is based on publications selected in the scientific information social network ResearchGate and the database Lens.org, and the study of the websites of public libraries in Brazil. An analysis of publications and websites has shown that today the experience of Brazilian libraries participating in science communication activities is not great, and the their main goal in popularizing scientific knowledge is to overcome information inequality and create inclusive access to scientific knowledge for all groups of the population. The library serves as an intermediary, an auxiliary tool, a place and a platform for implementing communication practices.

The relevance of this scientific article is due to the need to study the language of the mass media, newspaper discourse particularly, as a means of providing a speech impact on public consciousness in the process of constructing the image of law enforcement agencies. The authors describe the characteristics of the mass media discourse as one of the tools for the implementation of public power, the organization of political and social institutions and the formation of an image. In the process of producing the text of a newspaper message, a certain model is created that contributes to the understanding and interpretation of information. Such models are constructed by the authors using an appropriate choice of verbal means of representing the material and taking into account the value orientations of the addressees. The impact of newspaper discourse is rather indirect and hidden rather than direct and open, and the category of evaluation can be intellectual and emotional, reasoned and undocumented, social and personal. The assessment expressed in newspaper texts is often determined by social and ideological factors. It is the category of evaluativeness that will determine the nature of the functioning of the newspaper’s language at the lexical, word-formation, morphological, and syntactic levels. Verbalized with the help of various carefully selected communicative and pragmatic means, purposefully used by the addresser in media texts, the components of the Police image (“unprofessionalism”, “arbitrariness”, “brutality”) create a negative socio-psychological attitude in the perception of the Police service and its employees, as well as the recognition the legitimacy of this social institution by the population. The material of the study was 246 contexts presented in such opposition newspapers as “The Novaya Gazeta” and “The Kommersant” representing information about the law enforcement structure activities. It is concluded that these components and auxiliary nominees (“bias”, “forgery”, “lawlessness”, “corruption”) of the image of the police are actualized in contexts using verbs and verbal phrases with negative evaluative meaning, negative evaluative nouns, adjectives and adverbs, colloquial and pejorative vocabulary.

This paper investigates how women’s identities are gradually transformed and manipulated at the very beginning of their lives in the post-colonial Egyptian era under intersecting power structures through the character Firdaus in Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero, drawing on Foucauldian ideas of the panopticon and Althusserian concepts of interpellation. The purpose of this paper is to unmask the covert mechanisms of patriarchal power and state authority in shaping and regulating women’s behaviours. It also analyses how social institutions, such as educational and religious institutions, operate as ISAs and RSAs to endorse and inject stereotypical ideas into women. Implementing a qualitative approach through intensive textual analysis, this study identifies themes of surveillance, discipline, and ideological interpellation with the help of multiple feminist and postcolonial scholarship. The study identifies the very process of domestication of women’s identity through Firdaus. It demonstrates how Firdaus’ identity is systematically produced, policed, and censored through familial, religious, educational, legal, and economic institutions. The panoptical gaze transforms Firdaus into a ‘docile body’, who hailed patriarchal norms as a daughter, wife, prostitute, and a prisoner in a panoptic world until the end. It focuses on the hidden process of ideological apparatuses by linking Foucauldian and Althusserian theories to showcase how female subjection is sustained in a postcolonial context and how ideology is partly responsible for engineering female subjectivity in a subtle but effective process.

ABSTRACT This paper examines how social work institutions, despite their commitment to justice and dignity, often betray marginalized communities by intensifying trauma through inaction or harmful actions. It highlights the need for transparency and accountability, introducing the Institutional Trust Restoration Model—an eight-step framework to rebuild trust, strengthen relationships, and promote institutional courage. The model offers practical strategies for transforming organizations, addressing both historical and current harms, and advancing equity and accountability in social work.

It is generally accepted that the basis of social and legal stability in any society is a consensus on virtue — the fundamental values of proper behavior, ways of maintaining and reproducing them. And, conversely, the destruction of this consensus is a sign of the loss of stability and divergence of positions of social institutions, groups and professional communities in understanding and applying norms and sanctions for their violation. This schematic representation poorly explains the parameters of the moral crisis of the era of globalization: the reasons for the loss of the meaning of the concept of virtue as the basis of the moral universe of humanity; the rejection of universal moral standards previously supported by religion or ideology, the growing conflict of their interpretations in different cultures, confessional and ethnic communities, the confrontation of value hierarchies within national cultures and individual groups, and most importantly - the lack of common moral guidelines of what to strive for. In these conditions, the dominant global trend has become the appeal to the codification of norms of so-called “pragmatic ethics” – the development of various codes of proper behavior for individual social and professional groups, which in this way seek to express their identity, functions and place in the dynamics of changes in the social hierarchy. This general fashion for the creation of ethical codes has captured post-Soviet Russia and is considered almost a panacea for moral distortions and the basis for effective social regulation. Meanwhile, the codification of ethical standards of all social subcultures without exception means a tacit recognition of both their insurmountable contradictions and that part of them that does not share conventional standards of virtue or clearly rebels against them. On this basis, the phenomenon of moral anomie (that is, the destruction of the entire normative system) and the justification of non-conformist and immoral behavior arises. What should be the parameters and limits of its acceptance in a democratic society, and most importantly - who sets them? This range of problems becomes the subject of analysis for the first time in this article, based on the entire corpus of the latest ethical codes of marginal communities in modern Russia.

ABSTRACT This study examines the asymmetric effects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and ESG controversies on firm performance and investigates the moderating role of executive gender diversity. Using a panel of 561 non‐financial firms from 14 European countries over the period 2014–2023, we employ a two‐stage least squares (2SLS) approach to address endogeneity concerns. Firm performance is measured using both market‐based (Tobin's Q) and accounting‐based (ROA) indicators. The results show that ESG performance is positively associated with firm value, whereas ESG controversies exert significant negative effects, reflecting the reputational and financial costs of ESG failures. Importantly, executive gender diversity strengthens the positive performance implications of ESG engagement and mitigates the adverse effects of ESG controversies, although gender diversity in isolation does not uniformly enhance performance. Board‐level governance characteristics operate as contextual mechanisms, exhibiting divergent effects across market‐ and accounting‐based performance measures. By distinguishing between ESG performance and ESG controversies and by conceptualizing executive gender diversity as a contingent executive‐level attribute, this study contributes to Corporate Social Responsibility, Institutional, and Upper Echelons theories. The findings highlight the importance of executive‐level diversity and governance alignment in translating ESG engagement into sustainable firm value.

This study investigates the process of artistic empowerment facilitated through clay-based art practices among individuals residing in a social service institution in Indonesia. Using a qualitative case study approach, nine participants engaged in a structured series of tactile clay activities designed to enhance selfexpression, creativity, and emotional well-being. Data collection methods included participant observation, visual documentation, reflective journaling, and semi-structured interviews. The findings demonstrate that clay art provided a nonverbal medium through which participants articulated personal experiences, developed confidence, and built a sense of agency. Engagement with clay fostered therapeutic benefits, encouraged self-discovery, and strengthened interpersonal connections within the institutional environment. The study highlights the transformative potential of art-making as a tool for empowerment among marginalized groups and suggests its integration into social care programming. These insights contribute to broader discourses on inclusive art practices and their psychosocial impact in institutional settings.

The study examines the concept of “interest” through the lens of the complexity of its content and multiplicity of meanings. The aim of the research is to describe the achievements of socio-psychological, socio-economic, and philosophical-sociological approaches regarding the essential foundations of this concept. The analysis provided on the practices of utilizing the polysemic concept of “interest” for elucidating the processes of social reality development has allowed for the identification of the content foundations of this notion and the determi-nation of the contradictory positions in its application. Particular attention is paid to the socio-psychological ap-proach, which delineates the interconnections between the category of “interest” and the concepts of “need”, “aspiration”, “desire”, “motive”, among others. In the context of the socio-economic approach, the study defines its correlation with terms such as “benefit”, “utility”, “rationality”, and others. Using the philosophical-sociological approach, the relationship between the category of “interest” and the concepts of “value”, “social relations”, “dis-tribution relationships”, “power”, and “social institution” was analyzed.

When writing about the metaphysics of social institutions, philosophers rightly emphasize that institutions’ existence and nature are “up to us” in a deep and important way. Objects such as insects and stars could exist with the same basic nature in the absence of human activity; governments and religious institutions could not. But my project is to explore what happens if we begin with ways in which institutions are sometimes relatively less “up to us.” This approach points toward a behavioral theory of institutions: institutions are made up of behavior that clusters into copied roles, and the individuals who engage in that behavior, where all of the roles together promote some particular result(s). I develop and apply the theory in detail, and then show how it differs from other views in the literature by eschewing mental states and precluding metaphysical inconsistency.

Abstract Violations of sovereignty not only generate emotional diplomatic outbursts but are also frequently the subject of multilateral engagements. One paradigmatic example of a sovereignty violation engendering this kind of response is that of state-led international kidnappings. But why do the victims of sovereignty violations multilateralise such transgressions? What makes them think that other states will be receptive to such attempts? To answer this question, we theorise the role of performative emotionality in maintaining the institution of sovereignty. Specifically, we conceptualise sovereignty as a social institution that constructs states as persons, and thus as bearers of dignity, and upholds this construction through shared feeling rules. This reveals sovereignty violations to be primarily a denial of dignity, that is, the expectation to be treated as an autonomous person of equal moral worth, which demands an appropriate emotional performance from all states, not just those involved in the sovereignty dispute. This performance is shaped by the international system’s colonial legacy, embodied in an enduring standard of civilisation. To illustrate this, we analyse two instances of state-led international kidnappings: Argentina’s response to the abduction of Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents in 1960, and Japan’s ongoing response to the kidnapping of multiple Japanese citizens by North Korea.