Socio-political Backgrounds Research Articles

Effective learning and testing of bird identification skills

ABSTRACT Biology education worldwide at different levels involves learning to identify plants and animals in nature. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a teaching and learning method for bird identification that combines active outdoor fieldwork with active online learning, testing the validity of our instrument. Altogether, 798 of 853 students with different cultural and socio-political backgrounds from nine countries participated in 2010–2018. The research method was an online bird identification test at the beginning of the study, an online test and a field test at the end of the field teaching period, and an online exam at the end of the study. The results showed great progression from the beginning to the exam at the end of the study, and a positive correlation between initial skills and exam skills. Finally, the field test showed a strong positive correlation with the online test taken simultaneously, thus indicating that functional competence can be measured in the online exam. We recommend our instrument for teaching and testing of students’ skills in species identification worldwide and for all taxa, but further testing of validity and teaching effects is recommended.

The Evolution of 'Kafir' in the Qur’an: A Diachronic Study on the Socio-Political Influences Shaping Its Meaning

The term 'kafir' in the Qur’an possesses a complex meaning, which is one of the most pivotal elements of the Qur’an, influenced by the context from the time of revelation to the practice of the interpretive community. Considering the element of time, the meaning of 'kafir' has changed over the years; it is dynamic and dependent on temporal, spatial, and socio-political contexts. This paper explores the historical-critical changes in the meaning of 'kafir' over time, known as a diachronic study, by considering the socio-political backgrounds accompanying these emerging meanings. The objective of this paper is to foster a more comprehensive understanding of 'kafir' as a dynamic and discursive term throughout history. The findings indicate that with the continuous evolution of context, different understandings and meanings have surfaced, rendering the meaning of 'kafir' fluid. The term dates back to pre-Islamic times and was later used in the Qur’an within a new conceptual framework. Within the interpretive community, political divisions in the first centuries of Islam contributed to diverse meanings of 'kafir.' In the modern era, the predominance of the nation-state concept has brought the term 'kafir' into debates concerning the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims and their status within the nation-state. This type of historically grounded diachronic study helps to avoid essentialism in the study of historically significant terms and concepts related to Muslim societies, which are still often examined in popular academic discourse.

Disappearance, emergence, and appearance: garbage and the politics of placemaking in Cartagena, Colombia

ABSTRACT This paper examines the politics of placemaking in an expanding self-built settlement in the city of Cartagena, Colombia, under everyday conditions of disposability and waste toxicity. Based on 11 months of ethnographic research, the paper introduces the triptych of disappearance, emergence, and appearance to categorize residents’ everyday garbage-based practices. The paper argues that these three forms of garbage-based practices are racialized and forged through historical processes of urban displacement, shifting socio-political backgrounds, and legacies of violence. This paper highlights the intimate links between the material and social production of Black placemaking and embodied experiences of toxicities in Cartagena. It draws attention to the multiple ways in which Afro-Colombian residents endure and contest cumulative processes of embodied experiences of waste exposure through politics of placemaking. Garbage socio-material entanglements allow for the acknowledgement of the relationality of space, materials, people, and politics, which are constitutive of contentious relational politics of placemaking. As residents in urban contexts contend with ever-evolving waste challenges, this paper proposes novel ways of reading the inherent plurality of relational politics of placemaking, which can foreshadow alternative urban environmental futures.

Formation of Ethnic Minority Organizations in the First Years of Ukrainian Independence

historical retrospectives of the formation and activities of ethnic minority organizations in the early 1990s as one of the factors of state-building remains relevant. This study aims to analyze the historical context and peculiarities of the institutionalization of ethnic minority structures in Ukraine at the initial stage of the restoration of Ukrainian state independence. The research object is ethnic minority organizations, primarily those that focused their activities on national and cultural revival. The methodological framework includes the principles of historicism, tolerance, scientific impartiality, and impartiality. We have traced the specifics of the formation of ethnic community organizations and the main vectors of their activities during the specified period. Despite many common historical, cultural, and socio-political backgrounds, the formation of such organizations for different communities could have its peculiarities. For example, for Jewish organizations, the demographic issue was acute due to emigrant sentiments in the Jewish community. As for ethnic minorities like Hungarians and Romanians, they had close ties with their historical homelands. This fact also influenced their organizational structure in Ukraine. The Georgian minority built their organizations emphasizing cooperation between Ukraine and Georgia. Germans also sought to maintain ties with their historical homeland. For Poles, the religious factor was significant. Overall, in Ukraine, there were quite favorable conditions for the full development and activities of ethnic minorities despite the complex political and economic situation of the early 1990s. Nowadays, the issue of organizational development of ethnic communities is a matter of focus for state authorities both at the legislative level and at the level of local communities.

Язык как ключ к реальности: от философии имени к дискурсу

Language and consciousness are two transcendental categories that determine the processes of cognition, thinking, introspection, perception, and subject-object relations. At different stages of philosophy, they were interpreted depending on the dominant philosophical and ideological paradigm in relation to reality, the existential goals of the subject and society, and methodological approaches, e.g., phenomenological, hermeneutical, discursive, etc. This article systematizes the basic concepts of language in various historical epochs, i.e., from antiquity to the XXI century. The evolution of views on language is represented not from the standpoint of self-reference, but through the prism of socio-cultural and socio-historical changes in reality and its relation to the subject. The author traced the development of the philosophy of language and defined the reasons behind the evolution of approaches to language and consciousness. The article attempts to answer two questions: How do different paradigms of the philosophy of language and consciousness approach the matter of subject’s access to the real world? To what extent were paradigm shifts caused by the changing cultural, historical, and socio-political backgrounds? Since evolutionary epistemology identifies gnoseology as one of the main functions of language, the categories of thinking and understanding receive special attention. The growing complexity of the world order affects the relationship between language and consciousness, i.e., from singularity (philosophy of name) to continuality (discourse).

Exploring Audience Trust in Journalism: A Comprehensive Survey Study

This comprehensive study explores the variables that affect media credibility and perceptions while examining the present levels of audience trust in journalism. It has never been more important to understand trust dynamics in light of growing concerns about partisanship, skewed reporting, and misinformation. We employ a mixed-methods approach in our research, mixing qualitative interviews with quantitative surveys to collect data from a wide range of participant demographics. Our objective is to determine the fundamental factors that promote trust, including accuracy, objectivity, credibility, and influence. The study also looks at the perceptions of news sources among various age groups and sociopolitical backgrounds. For this matter, 200 participants were selected on a non-random basis based in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Social Responsibility Theory was utilized to see the research study. The study explored that the usage of social media is much more than traditional media, it has also been noted that people find the news on the internet more credible. Many of the respondents feel that the influence of political interest does go into the construction of news stories, we applied chi-square to check and it has shown that the majority of them feel tremendously high. Overall, the results show that people have less trust in Pakistani media.

Justification of headscarf bans in Europe and Turkey: A comparative analysis

ABSTRACT This study aims to descriptively analyze public debates in Europe and Turkey on Muslim women's head coverings in the context of similarities and differences. The main question the study attempts to answer is: How are the headscarf bans in Europe and Turkey discursively constructed and justified after 9/11 in Europe and the 28 February 1997 era in Turkey and what differences and parallels can be observed? With this question in mind, I first summarize the practices regarding the headscarf in Europe and Turkey and the policies adopted by the states. I also examine how headscarf bans are justified in public discourses in European countries and in Turkey. What the study ultimately reveals is that despite their differences in cultural, religious, and socio-political backgrounds, the European countries and Turkey have developed comparable perspectives and procedures regarding the representation of Muslim women in the public sphere during the historical eras compared.

Exploring intra-party democracy and political finance in Pakistan: The case of effectiveness of mainstream political parties

This article explores the effectiveness of political parties in relation to political finance and intra-party democracy in Pakistan. The aim of the article is to offer an objective understanding of these variables and suggest a model for the effectiveness of political parties. Primary data was collected from a sample of 1000 respondents from eight different but politically relevant parties. The respondents have diverse socio-political backgrounds and positions in parties hailing from all the provinces of Pakistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir – a semi-autonomous territory under the administration of Pakistan. The instrument was developed and its validity and reliability were ensured. For empirical verification, extensive statistical tests were carried out, including validity and reliability analysis, standard regression and correlation, to test the assumptions of the research. Statistical analysis established that the independent variables are very significant in explaining the relationship with the dependent variable. Overall, most of the political parties are not internally democratic as they do not follow laid-down democratic processes in electing leadership and candidate selection, the findings revealed. Political parties are monopolized by personalities with weak organization and are institutionally fragile and compromise on their ideological foundation by preferring political expediency while decision making. Likewise, parties also rank poor in political finance as they rarely follow legal and administrative requirements laid down by the Election Commission of Pakistan on political finance. This has a direct bearing upon party effectiveness, as poor intraparty and weak political finance hinder party development as effective institutions aiming to aggregate the interests of the masses. The parties must ensure inclusiveness in choice making, build formal democratic decision-making structures and reinforce the key procedures for political financing. Moreover, political parties should be transparent and responsive towards democratic values and institutional practices to increase their effectiveness.

Perilaku Memilih Rasional dalam Pemilu Indonesia Kontemporer

The rational voting behaviour within current Indonesian political situation is still debatable. It basically shows the different socio-economic and socio-political backgrounds among the voters that results in different voting behaviour expressions. The urban voters whom middle-class background seems to be rational voters. They would like to be open-minded accepting various preferences rather than one or two preferences. This makes the urban voters could critically asses the parties and candidates they preferred with. Most importantly, they would stress some important issues like money poltiics and national economic evaluation to address voting behaviour expressions. For some reasons, these two factors still be important issues in shaping political choices in Indonesia. This paper will further elaborate empirically the rational voting behaviour in Indonesia. Specifically, this paper used the survey data from 2014 and 2019 elections to elaborate rational voting behaviour recently. These two recent elections basically could represent the latest voting behaviour expressions in Indonesia.

Unpacking modified idiomatic expressions in Kenyan political discourse: A cognitive linguistic perspective

Political discourse employs colorful expressions to establish strong relationships with the audience. Speakers or writers exploit the relationship between human language and socio-political experiences to initiate creative discourses through modification of expressions. Against this background, this study sets out to investigate the meaning of modified idiomatic expressions in Kenyan political discourse. The study has two objectives: to describe the structural and lexical modification of idiomatic expressions and to interpret the modified forms using vital relations. The study employs descriptive research design. The study randomly sampled ten idioms used during the 2017 General Elections and used content analysis to establish the lexical and structural relationships between the canonical and modified expressions. The idioms were analyzed using the Conceptual Integration Theory to preserve the link between two expressions and account for the emergent meaning. The study found that Kenyan political discourse achieves figurative competencies through modified idioms. Interpretation of modified idioms requires a thorough understanding of vital relations and pragmatic inferences. Further, Cognitive Linguistics establishes backstage cognition and supplies the elements omitted by grammar. The study concludes that modified idiomatic expressions achieve contextual significance. Consumers of modified idiomatic expressions should immerse themselves in the socio-political backgrounds to unmask the emergent meaning.

Ideological Attitudes in the US-China Diplomatic Spat over COVID-19: A Synergy of Socio-Cognitive Approach and Appraisal Theory

The outbreak of the Covid-19 has caused diplomatic discrepancies between the US and China. Therefore, this paper offers an exploration of how the appraisal theory by Martin and White (2005) might be operationalized critically and linguistically with the socio-cognitive approach (2011) inspired by van Dijk. These theories are interrelated to make the analysis of the ideological attitudes over Covid-19 outbreak among the high-ranking administration more explicit. The researcher thus qualitatively scrutinizes the statements used by US and Chinese officials in tweets and press conferences during March 2020 to identify the factors motivating the use of knowledge, attitudes, power and deep-rooted ideologies which underlie this war of words. The results of this research show that Donald Trump tactfully used language to accomplish his political objectives. The researcher thus concludes that Donald Trump has promoted racist ideologies that discriminate against Chinese individuals through the depiction of Covid-19 as ‘Chinese Virus’. This is evident in the ideological structures of his coronavirus-related press conferences and tweets. Although neither country (China or the USA) has yet been able to provide sufficient evidence to determine the origin of the virus, China has been largely accused of delaying the release of information. What’s more, it is found that the speeches made by official leaders have been significantly influenced by their sociocultural and sociopolitical backgrounds.

군사 목적 스페인어 교육을 위한 J. A. Niño의 희곡 『불모고지』의 확장성에 관한 연구

This study aims to design a Military Spanish teaching-learning model. In particular, it focuses on the expandability of El Monte Calvo (1966), a play written by Jairo Anibal Nino which follows a story of a colombian Battalion participating in the Korean War. Plays are suited to facilitate learners’ understanding of the context with ease due to its genre specificity: direct communication of meaning through dialogues. In addition, students can expand their understandings and improve their linguistic competence by reading the text and watching the audiovisual performance at the same time. On the other hand, Colombia’s unique political and diplomatic relationship with Korea allows learners to explore its socio-political backgrounds, and gives them a chance to compare different perspectives about this historical event. They can also read and research a variety of literary works and news articles on the same topic. The study found that learners were able to improve their linguistic competence, not only for Spanish but also for the Korean language, through group discussions and problem-solving experiences during the computer-assisted translation from Spanish to Korean. In this sense, learners are expected to enhance their critical literacy as well as learning Spanish in the military settings.

Resources Recruited by Science Teachers in Constituting Their Discourse Identities

ABSTRACT Drawing on a sociocultural understanding of identities as multiple and fluid, we investigate how six practicing teachers recruited their biographical resources in constituting their discourse identities in interviews. The South African context allows us to consider how systemic inequality shapes the identity resources available to teachers from diverse sociopolitical backgrounds. Using inductive thematic analysis, we found that racial positionality impacted the nature of the biographical resources at each teacher’s disposal. The two teachers from advantaged backgrounds drew only on their own schooling experiences, whereas initial teacher education featured strongly in the identities of the other teachers. Two teachers chose to teach in schools serving poor communities, which contributed to their identities as teachers who give their students an escape from their home situations, in part because of resonance with the teachers’ own home and schooling experiences. All six teachers’ identities reflected both the discipline of science and a concern for student success, and evidenced the teachers’ resourcefulness in using biographical resources to negotiate their identities in their current teaching contexts. The results suggest that science teacher educators would do well to pay attention to the diverse and idiosyncratic words that student teachers use to express their emerging identities, and the science teaching role-models available in their biographies. In addition, there is value in exposing student teachers to a range of teaching practices from which they can recruit material for their developing identities, rather than promoting a particular pedagogy.

Challenging the Savarna Articulation of Gender Equality: The Rise of Dalit Feminist Viewpoint

The emergence of Dalit feminist viewpoint, as an autonomous force, in parallel to the dominant imagination of feminist politics in India led by the English-speaking upper caste/middle class savarna women, marks a paradigmatic shift in our doing of gender politics, which seeks to reformulate an alternative agenda of women’s emancipation by including the specificities of the lived realities of women belonging to marginalised social locations. It critiques the essentialist and monolithic imagination of the category of ‘woman’ and seeks to radicalise our approach to the question of women’s liberation by pluralising the personal experiences of women belonging to different socio-political backgrounds. It foregrounds the intersectionality of caste, class and gender locations of women as an analytic tool to diversify the ways in which women are oppressed and exploited on the daily basis. It demands broadening of the contours of feminist imagination by stressing on the role of family, community, education, sexuality in sustaining gender norms and caste hierarchies that keep women within the ascribed roles of childbearing and nurtures of families. The role of caste as the producer of social hierarchies, perpetuator of gender discrimination and material exploitation is examined from the inersectionality of caste, class and gender in order to formulate an inclusive feminist framework to provide a rightful space to the lost voices of marginalised Dalit women. The paper foregrounds and analyses the collective fight of Dalit women for restoring equality, subjectivity, autonomy and dignified identity from the interlocked points of the caste, class and gender locations, thus underscoring the need for launching a holistic critique of the social, political and economic structures that subordinate women and relegate them to the margins of society.

Context as the Text Determinant: A Comparative study of Wollstonecraft and El Saadawi’s Socio-Political Backgrounds

The current paper considers, for the first time, the most controversial feminist writers, in both the West and the East, the British Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) and the Egyptian Nawal El Saadawi (1931-2021 ) from a feminist comparative perspective. Choosing these two authors is due to their lasting contributions to the development of feminism in their respective societies. This study is undertaken to shed light on the most salient socio-political circumstances that have prompted the considered authors to write in a strikingly similar way despite the fact that they come from very dissimilar cultures, religions and epochs. The present paper, principally by employing theories of the American school of comparative literature, attempts to vividly manifest how Wollstonecraft and El Saadawi, through their writings, have shared with the reader their own experiences and sufferings to give an authentic example of women’s misery in general. Such findings reveal that the integration of the authors’ personal experiences with their theories enriches their works with conviction and passion, while the French Revolution in the West and the resistance of the British colonizer in many Eastern countries have been vital determinants in the way Wollstonecraft and El Saadawi have written their novels, namely The Wrongs of Woman, or Maria (1798) and Women at Point Zero (1973).

Academics against Gender Studies

In Germany, knowledge production by gender researchers has been under attack not only from male rights activists, Christian fundamentalists and right-wing parties and movements, but also from scientists in various fi elds. Based on a discourse analysis of their publications (2009-2017) and a media reception analysis, this essay analyses arguments used by ‘gender’-critical scientists and the socio-political backgrounds to where they position themselves. I show that their arguments do not belong to scientifi c discourse, but can be interpreted as a form of science populism which lends ‘scientific’ authority to the formation of authoritarian, anti-feminist discourses that aims to reify ‘secure’ knowledge about ‘gender’. Accordingly, ‘gender-critical’ scientists are read mainly by non-scientific publics, including right-wing and Christian fundamentalist media and actors. As I will show, the phenomenon of scientists taking action against ‘gender’ can be situated in historical antifeminism, as well as contemporary discourses on the crisis-like character of the dynamics regarding gender knowledge and societal conditions.

Final year medical and social worker student's socio-political & religious backgrounds compared to the general public: The person-in-the-professional

Final year medical and social worker student's socio-political & religious backgrounds compared to the general public: The person-in-the-professional

Hip fracture care and national systems: Australia and Asia.

The Asia-Pacific region includes countries with diverse cultural, demographic, and socio-political backgrounds. Countries such as Japan have very high life expectancy and an aged population. China and India, with a combined population over 2.7 billion, will experience a huge wave of ageing population with subsequent osteoporotic injuries. Australia will experience a similar increase in the osteoporotic fracture burden, and is leading the region by establishing a national hip fracture registry with governmental guidelines and outcome monitoring. While it is impossible to compare fragility hip fracture care in every Asia-Pacific country, this review of 4 major nations gives insight into the challenges facing diverse systems. They are united by the pursuit of internationally accepted standards of timely surgery, combined orthogeriatric care, and secondary fracture prevention strategies.

Symbolic Boundaries and Moral Demands of Dalit Student Activism

Emerging literature on Dalit student activism explores the ways Dalit students position themselves with regard to other student groups and the broader caste structure. However, less attention has been paid to intragroup relations and dynamics within the community of Scheduled Caste (SC) students. This article explores the emerging differentiation and boundary-making among the SC students, thus contributing to the ongoing discussion on differences and divisions within the larger Dalit community. Focusing on symbolic boundaries, morality and socio-political backgrounds, I discuss the actual conflict between two SC students, in which they debated the moral dictate of the Dalit movement of “paying back to society.” Though both students seem to have internalized the moral demand, their perspectives on how to implement it differed. One student I shall call Raju advocated that paying back should be done through political action; the other student, Devan, argued that artistic expression is an equally legitimate way to “pay back to society.” The two protagonists also had substantively different relations with regard to the Dalit student organizations that advocated for political activism and “paying back to society.” For Raju, Dalit political activism served as a main avenue for personal upward social mobility, while Devan viewed political activism as a restrictive imposition limiting other legitimate means for “paying back to society.” I argue that symbolic boundaries between students cannot be reduced to class or caste distinctions, but rather that they are based on differing ideological and moral alignments. While acknowledging the influence of Ambedkarite ideology in forming students’ moral views, this case study shows that SC students do not espouse a single ideology or moral stance regarding modes of political activism, which brings out tensions that arise at the intersection between Dalit movement’s ethics and multiple individual moralities. The paper also describes two different ways students may imagine their social mobility.

Perempuan kepala daerah: jati diri sebagai modal individual dan infrastruktur politiknya dalam tata pemerintahan daerah

This article describes a picture of the problems and achievements of women's leadership in the realization of gender justice in the regions and their supporting factors. With a locus of research on government at the executive level in Indonesia and objects of study on women Regional Head / Deputy Regional Head, this study produced findings that the profiles of women regional leaders have diverse socio-political backgrounds, individual capital and party bearers. Although there are currently many women leaders who become leaders at the executive level, they have not yet been fully born in the space of structural transformation and governance relations. So that decentralization and regional autonomy should not only serve as momentum marking changes in governance at the regional level, but rather become a structure of change itself, which opens opportunities for structural transformation and restructuring of power relations so that women's leadership becomes more meaningful in regional government. The emergence of women leaders in the regions is still inseparable from familial ties which have taken women hostage to past attachments while structurally hampering the movement of change itself. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26905/pjiap.v4i2.3389