Socio-political Constraints Research Articles

Universities as knowledge incubators: Possibilities for novelty

The current Thematic Section is dedicated to possibilities of maintaining and enhancing of new knowledge production function of universities, with a focus on the social sciences. It starts from the assumption that our contemporary university administration systems have become inflexible due to their bureaucratic overgrowth of regulations of university studies. From that follows the need to create new conditions to knowledge incubators—groups of researchers united with goals of innovation in a given field. The different contributions cover the relevance for knowledge incubation improved funding possibilities, new technologies (AI), and general intellectual atmosphere in universities. This atmosphere is generated through a set of local social norm systems about inclusion <> exclusion of participants in different places on university territories, the demand structures of assignments, plagiarism tests, and organization of examinations. All these super-curricular structures enhance the fixed knowledge transfer functions of higher education in contrast to new knowledge incubation. The latter is particularly important in the social sciences since new ways of understanding human beings within societies are needed. Contributions to this Section also outline the socio-political constraints upon knowledge incubation. Paradoxically it can be the application for and success in gaining research funding that can curtail innovation in ideas in the social sciences.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous Peoples' health and wellbeing: A systematic umbrella review.

Indigenous Peoples worldwide are experiencing a cascade of impacts on their health and wellbeing as a result of climate change and biodiversity loss. Existing literature at the interface of climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous health tells us that Indigenous Peoples are among those most disproportionately and acutely affected by these impacts. Yet, a gap exists with respect to comprehensively and critically synthesizing the impacts reported across this literature and identifying Indigenous-led responses. Guided by an Indigenous advisory group, we employed a systematic umbrella review methodology, following PRISMA guidelines, to characterize the global secondary literature (PROSPERO registration #: CRD42023417060). In so doing, we identified the proximal, intermediate, distal, and gendered impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on Indigenous health and wellbeing as well as Indigenous-led responses. Five databases were searched for published reviews, along with a grey literature search that focused on underrepresented geographic regions in the academic literature. Two independent reviewers conducted two-stage screening, data extraction, and quality assessment of retrieved records. Basic descriptive statistics were calculated. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically, using a constant comparative approach. A total of 38 review articles met the eligibility criteria and 37 grey literature records were retrieved and included in the review. Reviews were published between 2010-2023 and geographically clustered in the Circumpolar North. Intersecting proximal, intermediate, and distal impacts were characterized as place-based and specific, and linked to colonialism as an antecedent to and driver of these impacts. Gendered impacts were underexplored within reviews. Reviewed literature underscored the value of engaging diverse knowledge systems; platforming localized, community-led adaptation to climate change and biodiversity loss, while addressing sociopolitical constraints to these efforts; and applying a broader conceptualization of health that aligns with Indigenous frameworks. Going forward, we must foreground equity- and rights-based considerations within integrated responses to climate and biodiversity crises.

Mind the gap! The role of health policy capacity and vaccination acceptance in European Covid‐19 mortality differences

AbstractTwo years of the Covid‐19 pandemic caused significantly different death tolls in European countries. Nine of the 30 countries with the highest accumulated fatalities belong to Central and Eastern Europe, although the solidarity of the European Union (EU) provided vaccines for all member states. Using correlation and cluster analysis, this paper identifies the demographic, social, and political factors which can explain the differences. As generally accepted in the literature, the death toll is measured by the number of excess deaths. The examination separates the prevaccination and vaccination periods. While the impact of other factors is also present, vaccination coverage has a salient explanatory role in the excess deaths of the second period. The experiences of the Covid‐19 pandemic simultaneously highlight the importance and sociopolitical constraints of health policy at the European level. The analysis confirms that complementary competences between the European and national levels are adequate for the EU health policy.

Identifying Profiles of Support for Legal Abortion Services in Zambia: A Latent Class Analysis.

Relative to neighboring countries, Zambia has among the most progressive abortion policies, but numerous sociopolitical constraints inhibit knowledge of pregnancy termination rights and access to safe abortion services. Multistage cluster sampling was used to randomly select 1,486 women aged 15-44 years from households in three provinces. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to partition women into discrete groups based on patterns of endorsed support for legalized abortion on six socioeconomic and health conditions. Predictors of probabilistic membership in latent profiles of support for legal abortion services were identified through mixture modeling. A three-class solution of support patterns for legal abortion services emerged from LCA: (1) legal abortion opponents (∼58 percent) opposed legal abortion across scenarios; (2) legal abortion advocates (∼23 percent) universally endorsed legal protections for abortion care; and (3) conditional supporters of legal abortion (∼19 percent) only supported legal abortion in circumstances where the pregnancy threatened the fetus or mother. Advocates and Conditional supporters reported higher exposure to family planning messages compared to opponents. Relative to opponents, advocates were more educated, and Conditional supporters were wealthier. Findings reveal that attitudes towards abortion in Zambia are not monolithic, but women with access to financial/social assets exhibited more receptive attitudes towards legal abortion.

Investment and the inaudible mother tongue: Carving out a space for Kurdish in the soundscape of an Istanbul kebab restaurant

Abstract Firmly grounded in local sociopolitical constraints, language policies at Istanbul's Kurdish-run eating establishments often place Kurdish employees’ cultural identity construction at odds with their workplaces’ economic viability. In the face of rigid structures that cement the dominance of Turkish, the Kurdish managers highlighted in a previous study exercise limited agency to enact language policies that align with their pro-Kurdish ideologies, rendering Kurdish largely invisible. This article revisits these themes by examining a nearby Kurdish-run restaurant with a language policy that violates this norm. Applying Darvin & Norton's (2015) model of investment, analyses of observations and interviews consider identity, ideology, and economic capital vis-à-vis employees’ perceived valuation of Kurdish as a workplace language. Results suggest that capital ownership emboldens the audible articulation of Kurdish identities, which emerge from pluricentrically oriented ideologies, fostering resistance to local language policy norms. (Investment, language policy, capital, Kurdish, ideology, pluricentricity)

THE PROBLEMS OF DA'WAH UMMAH

The article titled "The Problems of Dakwah Ummah" offers an in-depth exploration of the contemporary challenges faced by the Ummah (the global Muslim community) in propagating Islamic teachings and values, known as dakwah. As globalization continues to interconnect societies, new platforms and mediums for dakwah emerge, but so do an array of complications. This piece sheds light on various facets such as the influence of modern technology on dakwah, the potential distortion of religious messages, socio-political constraints, and cultural adaptations. It also underscores the necessity for a holistic understanding and a renewed methodology in dakwah to ensure its efficacy in contemporary contexts. Through a careful balance of historical analysis, and case studies, this article provides both a diagnostic view and prospective solutions for the ongoing struggles of dakwah in the Ummah

Barriers to powering past coal: Implications for a just energy transition in South Africa

The feasibility of South Africa's just energy transition, as dictated by the speed of phasing out coal and scaling up renewables, will rest on a range of techno-economic, socio-political, and socio-technical factors. Interactions between these dimensions of the transition carry significant implications for energy justice. In response, this paper proposes the Just Transition Feasibility Framework (JTFF) to better evaluate how feasibility constraints may impact South Africa's energy transition ambitions, and its more recent commitments to energy justice. Drawing on qualitative findings from interviews with South African energy experts, the study provides critical insights on the national- and community-scale implications of current energy policies. The analysis highlights socio-political constraints related to the Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REI4P) which aggravate energy vulnerabilities and misrecognition of places. In addition to strategically tackling a range of techno-economic and socio-technical constraints which are seen to exacerbate distributive injustice, the South African government should extend the 50 km radius scheme of the REI4P to a wider and more inclusive regional basis. Foremost, policy interventions must seek to realign South Africa's Minerals Energy Complex towards a just transition pathway committed to renewable electrification, community empowerment, and sustainable socio-economic structures.

Deployment planning tool for environmentally sensitive heavy-duty vehicles and fueling infrastructure

A novel planning tool is introduced for projecting vehicle and fueling infrastructure deployment of near-zero and zero emission heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs). To address climate change and air quality goals, the tool is based on a systematic methodology to develop rollout scenarios that meet environmental goals at the lowest cost, and identify policy to facilitate the deployment. Called TRACE (Transportation Rollout Affecting Cost and Emissions), the methodology provides a framework for developing and analyzing scenarios that consider the technical and socio-political constraints and incentives in the emerging HDV sector. For the California Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Scenario requiring an 80% reduction in 1990 GHG levels by 2050, TRACE projects a significant population of biomass-sourced renewable diesel-fueled internal combustion vehicles, complemented by a substantial population of battery and fuel cell electric powertrain adoption by 2050. In contrast, the Zero Emission Vehicle Scenario projects a near-complete (100%) adoption of battery and fuel cell electric powertrains by 2050 with a 0.53% higher cumulative cost than the GHG Scenario. The policy implications include a need for (1) near-term benefits of low/negative carbon intensity biomass without diminishing adoption of zero emission HDVs, and (2) both renewable fuel and fuel cell electric vehicle incentives tailored to vocational demand.

Building social capital through encounter-based peace education: how Pakistani youth sustain motivation for peacebuilding and social cohesion

ABSTRACT Encounter-based peace education programmes promote social cohesion and motivate youth to become peacebuilders. However, participants struggle to sustain these transformations in conflict contexts. This article draws from interviews and focus groups with alumni from four programmes that brought Pakistani youth to the US and other sources to examine these participants’ long-term transformations. It argues that the programmes’ emphasis on service-oriented activities led to participants’ motivation to improve their communities because of the social capital built through these programmes. Connecting with strangers across conflict differences also resulted in participants’ increased openness towards opposing groups. Consequently, alumni implemented projects to benefit their communities in Pakistan but were often unable to explicitly promote social cohesion because of sociopolitical constraints. Despite these challenges, the programmes emphasising community action in the US and in Pakistan increased participants’ peacebuilding motivation and helped youth to maintain it as their projects reinforced their attitudinal transformations promoting social cohesion.

Finding agency in limbo: A qualitative investigation into the impact of occupational engagement on the mental health and wellbeing of asylum seekers in the UK.

The process of seeking asylum is complex and often leads to extended periods of uncertainty and liminality for people awaiting decisions on their status. Occupational engagement-defined as meaningful activities and roles that bring purpose and agency to one's life-may be a key driver for mental health recovery for marginalized populations, including asylum seekers with traumatic experiences pre- and post-migration. This study aimed to clarify how occupational engagement impacts on mental health and wellbeing and how asylum seekers maintain engagement in occupation in the context of socio-political constraints of the asylum process. We explored the occupational experiences of 12 clients of one human-rights charity, utilizing community-based participatory research methods. Participants completed group mapping sessions where they depicted routine journeys taken to perform occupations in London, which included discussion around the significance of their journeys. Four participants also completed additional "walking maps"-semi-structured interviews which occurred along a selected "occupational journey" they identified as meaningful to their wellbeing. All data were analyzed using thematic network analysis. Findings revealed that engagement in routine occupations within safe, social spaces positively affects the mental wellbeing of asylum seekers by promoting competence, agency, and feelings of belonging. The liminal space of the asylum process meant that participants' occupational engagement was limited to 'leisure' activities but was still critical to establishing forms of agency associated with their wellbeing. Implications for programs and interventions responding to the needs of asylum seekers are discussed.

The ‘integrative potential’ and socio-political constraints of football in Southeast Europe: a critical exploration of lived experiences of people seeking asylum

This paper critically interrogates the ‘integrative potential’ of football by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork that includes 84 semi-structured interviews with refugees, asylum seekers and local community organizations, and five interviews with representatives of national football associations across Southeast Europe, a region that has hitherto been under-examined in this field of research. The results show the uneasy and strained relationship between football and integration, characterized by incongruity between micro-level practices and experiences of solidarity and inclusion, and State-sponsored marginality and deterrence taking place in Southeast Europe. We provide empirical evidence for social connections, facilitators (i.e. language and communication, safety and stability), and rights as relevant, meaningful and challenging domains of integration in the context of football. We conclude that foundational rights, and hence dehumanizing policies and discourses, need to be addressed if the proclaimed ‘integrative potential’ of football is to be realized beyond social connections and sporadic examples of access to decent work through football.

Teaching Arabic to children and youth in the United States: between love and indictment

ABSTRACT This bilingual qualitative study draws on translingual interviews conducted in 2017 and 2018 with seven Arabic bilingual teachers in Central Ohio, United States. The conceptual framework centers on raciolinguistic perspective and decolonial love pedagogies. The interview questions focused on: teachers’ pedagogical practices and challenges and opportunities (educational, social, and political) that they face while teaching Arabic. Findings assert that the teachers had a deep understanding of the impact of raciolinguistic ideologies and perspective on teaching Arabic and highlighted the implicit and explicit sociopolitical constraints that limit their students’ ability to use Arabic in contexts beyond the home environment. The findings also suggested that the bilingual Arabic teachers wrote themselves and their students differently from the raciolinguistic perspective imposed on them by focusing on decolonial love pedagogies. The implications require more radical intimate inquiry in the light of Orientalist and neoliberal politics of bilingual education in U.S. that pertain to Arabic education.

Reassessing Japanese American Collective Memory Through Gene Oishi’s Internment Narratives

Seven decades after Japanese Americans were interned during the Second World War, former journalist and internment survivor Gene Oishi published Fox Drum Bebop (2014). The protagonist, Hiroshi, had been introduced in Oishi’s previous memoir, In Search of Hiroshi (1988), as “quasi-fictional” and “neither American nor Japanese, but simply me”. Yet, in the same memoir, Oishi had also described his inability to write about ‘Hiroshi’, thus settling on ‘Gene’ as a main character and waiting 28 more years before publishing a book about his true self. A comparison between the two books highlights that In Search of Hiroshi was written as an attempt at telling a story that would implicitly support the ‘model minority’ myth by offering an account of the internment experience as a direct response to the sociopolitical constraints related to the request by Japanese Americans for redress from the U.S. government. On the other hand, the more recent Fox Drum Bebop represents a fictional retelling of Oishi’s memoir which reveals the limits of the collective memory of the internment as developed during the redress years by openly defying the ‘model minority’ stereotype while at the same time once more denouncing the injustices suffered by the Japanese American community during the war. This essay focuses on Oishi’s double narrative as a reassessment of the collective memory of the internment experience and of its lasting effects on Japanese Americans.

Letter Writing and Space for Women’s Self-expression in Janet Frame’s Owls Do Cry and Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table

ABSTRACT This essay engages with life writing in Janet Frame’s 1957 novel, Owls Do Cry and Jane Campion’s 1990 film biopic of Frame’s autobiographies, An Angel At My Table. It aims to consider the physical and socio-political constraints on women’s writing, and how these may be deconstructed through non-conventional forms of intellectual exploration. Communication between women is explored in the formats used in both Frame’s novel and Campion’s film. With a primary focus on letter writing, this essay also considers diary entries, published literary work, the film text, and silence as areas of interest. This essay employs the form of letter writing in attempt to explore the medium used by Frame and the characters in Owls Do Cry as an alternative form of intellectual scholarly practice. In doing so, it aims to consider Frame’s literary legacy as a paradigm for academic study, in which women’s varied creative practices can be considered for academic exploration. The letter form also signifies an attempt to recontextualise the letter form, in order to compare the constraints on women’s writing in 1940s and 1950s New Zealand with twenty-first-century concerns about gender equality in academia and creative writing.

How states react to the international regime complexities on migration: a study of cases in South East Asia and beyond

Abstract This article provides a holistic analysis of the ‘migration regime complex’ in Asia, which is distinguished from other regions of the world in the absence of a refugee protection regime. The ‘refugee regime complexity’ argument (Betts) fails to take into consideration the deviant behaviors of Asian states that have been excluded from the core institution building. The immigration control policies of Asian countries reflect their respective strategies that seek to take advantage of the economic opportunities provided by the international environment within the domestic sociopolitical constraints. The case studies show that Asian states while rejecting the UN-led refugee regime, tolerate irregular migration not only to protect their vital interest in economic development but also to maintain political stability at both national and regional levels.

A multi-objective optimal allocation of treated wastewater in urban areas using leader-follower game

This study proposes a new method for optimal allocation of Treated Wastewater (TW), in which different stakeholders, their social position in decision-making, and priority of objectives were attended using the leader-follower game theory. The suggested methodology was applied in a case study in the eastern part of Tehran province in Iran, where the Water and Sewage Department is considered the leader and four TW dependent districts are the followers in the game model. The leader appropriates a certain TW quantity to the system, and the followers compete for the allocated resources in the face of various physical and sociopolitical constraints. The Nash-Harsanyi production function was applied to model the non-cooperative relationships among the followers (i.e., their competition for limited resources) and find a compromise solution. Considering different limitations, such as the location and quantity of the TW allocation, 1569 different allocation scenarios were considered in four districts. Then, the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) based multi-objective optimization model was developed to optimize the main objectives of the leader, including i) minimizing the TW transfer costs, and ii) minimizing the supplied demand deficiency in all districts. A multi-criteria decision-making model was utilized to find the best solution on the achieved Pareto-front space. Nine different weighting scenarios were adopted to assess the model sensitivity to the importance of the selected criteria. Results point to the sensitivity of the framework to weighting scenarios, but provide effective compromise solutions to a complex system that can only partially supply water demands.

Family formation among lalas (lesbians) in urban China: Strategies for forming families and navigating relationships with families of origin

This article explores the ways in which Chinese lesbians, who identify themselves as lalas, form their own families and navigate their relationships with families of origin. To date, there is a lack of research on families formed by same-sex couples in urban China, where homosexuality remains stigmatized. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 35 lala-identified women in Beijing, this article shows that lalas’ formation of families has been shaped by, but at the same time shaping, their relationships with their families of origin, who tend to embrace heteronormative family beliefs. Engaging with ongoing debates on choice and individualization, this study reveals the tensions between lalas’ family aspirations and gendered, familial, material, and socio-political constraints imposed on female-led same-sex families. It contributes to sociological understanding of family change by revealing alternative paths to same-sex family formation in a context where the act of coming out is challenging and families formed by same-sex couples remain largely invisible.

Reflections on failure: teaching research methodology

ABSTRACT Across our combined 15 years of experience as methodologists and research methodology instructors, we have found that the concept of ‘failure’ is only a small portion of methodological literature and is similarly missing from scholarship on teaching and learning social science research methodology. We define failure in terms of our inability as researchers to reach the onto-epistemological ideals to which we aspire in our empirical fieldwork with others, both in terms of relationships formed with our research participants and our inability to overcome broader (institutional or socio-political) constraints. This reflexive position paper is an attempt to provide several tools that instructors of research methodology courses may use to teach students techniques for better understanding the causes of failure; to provide students opportunities for workshopping and discussing fieldwork in the moment; and to model transparency and openness in reporting failures as part of their writing and research dissemination. We draw on our own teaching experiences to provide examples of how to build structures that will support students as they prepare to deal with the failures that often occur in empirical inquiry. We then offer examples of what teaching about failure might look like within the frameworks of existing research methodology courses.

Cultural geography of vernacular architecture in a cross-cultural context: houses of the Dai ethnic minority in South China

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the cultural geography of the vernacular architecture of the Dai ethnic minority in Dehong Prefecture, located on the border between southern China and Myanmar. The objectives of the study include: exploring the characteristics and distributions of built forms, identifying the hybridization of ideal Dai pattern-built forms in Southeast Asia caused by the influence of the Han Chinese, and discussing the continuity and change of vernacular architecture in a cross-cultural context. The field methods include a physical survey of the cultural geography of Dai living as rice farmers in lowland geographies, a detailed investigation of their houses, and in-depth interviews with local informants about the dynamics of changes under socio-political constraints in China. The findings provide insight and knowledge about the cultural geography of architecture in a cross-cultural context.

Poultry Production System in Mauritania before the Activities of the “Program to Alleviate Rural Poverty through Support to Subsectors” (ProLPRAF)

The objective of the present study was to display the state of poultry production in fourth (4) regions (Nouakchott, Hodh El Gharbi, Assaba and Guidimaka) covered by ProLPRAF program at the beginning of the program activities in 2011. Data were collected during surveys with different questionnaires addressed to different actors of the poultry sector.
 
 Results from farmers showed that 65.0% were female with average age of 45.3 ± 8.40 years. Production constraints remained the same as those encountered in poultry farming in developing countries. There were no poultry markets in the regions, poultry sellers in Nouakchott were male (100%) with average age of 34.8 ± 5.2 years. Traditional local chicken marketed in the regions came either from Nouakchott region (40%) and others (40%), or imported from neighboring countries (20%). In modern poultry farming, day-old chick was imported from Morocco (85%) or Senegal (15%) as well as production inputs. The price of local chicken ranged from 1385 ± 126 to 2325 ± 275 MU, while broiler chicken was between 1255 ± 60 and 1470 ± 47 MU. Local chicken was for ritual, traditions and practices (75%). Layer’s Eggs were imported from Morocco (55%) or Senegal (45%), and average unit price of one egg was around 43.0 ± 5.0 MU. Poultry meat cooked in the restaurants consisted exclusively of broilers meat (100%).
 
 Poultry farming was facing socio-political constraints that limited its development, but the ProLPRAF program has been able to tackle these constraints and the impact of the program is plausible today.