Power Structures Research Articles

“Decolonisation as a Priority and not an Afterthought”: Traversing the Authorised Heritage Discourse in Urban Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT The role of the state in constructing heritage has been widely critiqued for a number of decades. However, ongoing separations exist between academic discourse and heritage practice. What is the current thinking of those shaping statutory heritage in the face of cities in change? This paper explores these issues in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand, through analysis of qualitative interviews with heritage policy leaders across its major cities. It finds that authorised heritage-making must go beyond addition of new heritages into existing power structures. Rather, a “stories first” lens requires heritage’s settler colonial legacy to be challenged and transformed.

The perceived future of female entrepreneurs in South Africa

The study under discussion aims to map the outlook for female business owners in South Africa by investigating nine stories shared by interviewees operating across industries, age groups, and holding different levels of education. Through a qualitative exploration grounded in the intersectionality theory, the research unveils a nuanced tapestry of challenges and opportunities shaping the experiences of these resilient entrepreneurs. The findings echo the transformative potential inherent in women-led businesses, vividly portraying them as dynamic agents fostering growth, attracting investments, and contributing positively to economic expansion, poverty alleviation, and community development. The narrative portrays the leading women-run businesses as agents of change, instigating economic growth, attracting investments, and contributing positively to the realisation of social justice, poverty eradication, and improved livelihoods. The theme of patriarchy surfaces as a challenge in the entrepreneurial field, but with more pronounced adverse structures in opposition to free-playing entrepreneurship. The study that has exhausted all the topics ends with an emphasis on targeted interventions, acknowledging the obstacle of domestic constraints, improving cooperation, and dismantling patriarchal power structures. Its principles are establishing a supportive environment that considers the distinctive factors of women's entrepreneurship, resulting in economic empowerment and sometimes overall social development. Due to its active contribution to women's direction in business and in the implementation of pertinent targeted interventions, South Africa can employ women's potential fully, which can lead to economic growth and be socially beneficial in the meantime. The study also suggests that future inquiries to clear the sight about different actors within the entrepreneurship ecosystem and eventually form a comprehensive outlook of all factors that underline the complex business generation process.

Recognising, Naming, and Resisting Racialisation and Ethnicisation in Swedish Compulsory Schools

Swedish schools and teachers are responsible for implementing measures that promote social justice. Based on qualitative data from observations, interviews, and student reflections and perspectives on intersectionality, the study critically analyses how students and school staff partake in ethnicised and racialised oppression of Swedish compulsory school students. The interplay between different bodies in school contexts and children’s responsive capacities to resisting oppression is of particular interest. The findings indicate that the oppression and control of body space based on ethnicity and race are often intertwined with various power structures, such as social and economic background, age, religion, and masculinity. Moreover, the majority’s silence plays a crucial role in perpetuating oppression. However, students who experience oppression have the ability to resist the coercive power of their peers and adults. The article proposes that students and school staff should enhance their ability to recognise and identify oppressive power dynamics within their local contexts. By developing these competencies, individuals can reflect on their role in perpetuating oppression, performatively open new possibilities, and learn how to take transformative action and enhance social justice

Elections 2024 in the Republic of Belarus: political landscape and strategy of the authorities

The article analyzes the new approach of the leadership of the Republic of Belarus to the organization of the structure of legislative power and elections to the National Assembly and local councils. The author pays special attention to the specifics of the 2024 election campaign and the process of forming the All-Belarusian National Assembly.

Breaking the racial silence: putting racial literacy to work in Australia

ABSTRACT Race structures the lives of Indigenous peoples and other negatively racialized people in Australia. The language of race permeates institutions, workplaces, and is embedded in everyday life. Racial literacy as pedagogical praxis resists the racial contract that secures whiteness as a structure of possessive power. We explore the state of racial literacy in Australian education, and the obstructions and opportunities for educators to do anti-racism work. To this end, we draw on the preliminary findings from an ongoing research project, Breaking the Racial Silence, and use them to inform a theoretical framework for conceptualizing educators’ racial literacy practices. We bring to the fore effective strategies, practices, and programmes used to interrogate race and racism. Despite the efforts of educators, racial literacy in formal and informal education is oftentimes suppressed and concealed by languages and practices that sustain the practices and pedagogies of whiteness.

Advancements and Challenges in Integrating Renewable Energy Sources Into Distribution Grid Systems: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract The issues in integrating renewable energy sources (RES) into distribution grid structures are thoroughly examined in this research. It highlights how important this integration is to updating the energy system and attaining environmental goals. The study explores the specific problems confronted by means of on-grid power structures, along with overall performance metrics and compatibility issues. Additionally, it presents a thorough assessment of the attributes of various RES hybrid systems, together with technology from the fields of solar, wind, batteries, and biomass. To be able to spotlight the significance of innovative solutions inside the dispersed technology environment, the integration of RES with combined heat and power system structures is investigated. This study addresses the numerous problems with RES integration into the grid to better comprehend their intricacies. The viability of RES integration is supported by real-world case studies that provide operational examples of dispersed generation systems. The study concludes by discussing the technical, financial, and grid-related problems associated with distributed generating systems' limits and highlighting the contribution of cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence to their removal. In conclusion, the report highlights the development toward smarter grids and improved distributed generating capacities as the essential component of a robust and sustainable energy future.

Ivan Argunov’s Portrait of Anna Kalmykova

This article examines Ivan Petrovich Argunov’s 1767 painting of Anna Nikolaevna Kalmykova, one of many Kalmyk children removed from their families by the Russian military and forcibly adopted by elite Russians and Europeans. Both sitter and painter were, in different ways, unfree: Argunov was enserfed by the Sheremetev family and Kalmykova was their ward. Examining the portrait’s many visual antecedents and references, this paper argues that Argunov used the intimate, informal styles of Enlightenment portraiture in a way that enmeshed its subject and author in the harsh social hierarchies of the Sheremetev household and imperial society. The relatively loose facture of the painting and its attention to the sitter’s liveliness and youth demonstrate Argunov’s skill as a modern portraitist. But although Kalmykova dominates the composition of her own portrait (which makes it unlike most other portraits of Kalmyk people in Russia during this period), Argunov makes clear that she is subordinate to her patron and other members of her “adoptive” family. Mapping the power structures of the household that enserfed him, Argunov combined private and ceremonial idioms in a way that said much about Kalmykova’s status and his own – a manner of portraiture that could only be copied by other artists from outside the household.

Site effect on seismic response of buried nuclear power plant structure

The development of multifunctional, multipurpose small modular next generation nuclear reactors has become a trend in designing small-scale nuclear power stations. In this study, taking a new next-generation buried nuclear power structure as the target structure, a 3D finite element model of the site-nuclear power plant structure system was established, and its response at different sites was studied. Using the internal substructure method, this study initially explored the impact of earthquake input and artificial boundary locations on the structural response. The results indicate that the internal substructure method enhances computational efficiency without compromising accuracy. For this model, it is recommended to input earthquake motion close to the structure, set the lateral boundary location to three times the width of the structure, and set the bottom boundary location to two times the depth of the structure. Subsequently, an investigation into the response of the structure at varying site wave velocities is conducted. The results show that as the wave velocity increases, the acceleration response intensifies, while the displacement response diminishes. However, the relationship is nonlinear; the response exhibits less variation with increasing site wave velocity. The seismic response of a structure is profoundly influenced by site conditions, emphasizing the imperative need for careful consideration of specific site characteristics in seismic analyses. In addition, the response pattern of the overall structure is significantly different from that of conventional large surface-sited nuclear power plants, and further research should be conducted on the seismic response characteristics of buried nuclear power plants.

Carbon Footprint of Spent Ternary Lithium-Ion Battery Waste Recycling

Road transport is the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions in China's transportation field. As an important means to achieve the "double carbon" goal in the transportation field, the new energy automobile industry will face a large number of power battery scrapping in the future. In order to quantitatively assess the carbon emission reduction benefits generated by the spent ternary lithium-ion battery waste recycling industry, the carbon footprint accounting model of spent ternary lithium-ion battery waste recycling and utilization was constructed from the life cycle perspective. By optimizing the power structure and transportation structure, the carbon emission reduction potential of spent ternary lithium-ion battery waste recycling was predicted and evaluated. In addition, the uncertainty analysis was conducted using the propagation of uncertainty equation to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of the carbon footprint results. The results showed that the current carbon footprint of Chinese enterprises using wet technology to recover 1 kg waste lithium batteries was -2 760.90 g (directional recycling process) and -3 752.78 g (recycling process), and the uncertainty of the carbon footprint was 16 % (directional recycling process) and 15 % (recycling process), respectively. From the analysis of carbon emission contribution, the regenerated product stage was the primary source of carbon reduction in the wet recycling and utilization of waste ternary lithium batteries, whereas the battery acquisition, disassembly, and end treatment stages were the main sources of carbon increase. Compared to optimizing the transportation structure, optimizing the power structure could effectively achieve greater carbon emission reduction potential. Under the collaborative optimization scenario, compared to that before optimization, 14 %-19 % carbon emission reduction could be achieved. Compared with native products, the directional circulation process and recycling process could achieve 9 % and 11 % emission reduction potential, respectively.

Learning to identify fake news and digital misinformation: lessons for educators

ABSTRACT This UK-based study examines how people learned to identify digital misinformation. This included what experiences enabled this development, and the skills that were acquired in the process. This is a small-scale qualitative study of participants who self-reported as being confident in spotting digital misinformation and the data was analysed using a thematic network model. The three main themes identified were: “Formal Learning”, “Informal Learning”, and “Sense of Self”. Participants reported that their formal educational experiences at primary and secondary school were largely unhelpful in their development of digital media literacy. Although a university education was identified as enabling the acquisition of some useful skills such as cross-referencing and critical thinking, participants acquired most of their abilities to identify digital misinformation from what is best characterised as their informal learning experiences, most notable of which was the establishment of a strong sense of self-awareness. This was pivotal to the monitoring of emotional triggers which are often the crux of digital misinformation. This paper also highlights the importance of critical pedagogy which promotes an awareness of wider power structures underpinning what is now being widely referred to as “surveillance capitalism”. In conclusion, it is suggested that formal education could learn much from these informal educational processes which have been identified as being helpful in building criticality, which is in turn integral to producing more digital media-literate citizens, and a population more resilient to digital misinformation.

Rethinking fashion photography: reconstructing identities, decolonising bodies and resistance in postcolonial Morocco

Fashion photography in Moroccan magazines, newspapers and social media finds a favourable environment to incubate, develop and theorise on Moroccan cultural identity. Such areas of fashion photography have become sites of the female body, dream and fashion. In this paper, I investigate different articulations of postcolonial fashion critique by focusing on photography as a space where conflicting ideologies occur, where cultural encounters escalate different agendas and different ideas about gender, nationhood and cultural identity. Deploying Foucault’s concept of docile bodies, this paper reads fashion photography as a space of women bodies exposed to different structures of power, ready to be ‘manipulated, shaped, and trained’ (135–136). Affected by the history of colonial domination and the postcolonial condition, fashion photography emphasises not only the process of alterity by contributing to the reservoir of produced oriental fantasies but also fosters and frustrates western imperial hegemony. This paper examines the transition of fashion discourse from traditional paper-based media to the digital realm, with a particular emphasis on the perpetuation of hegemonic narratives within the fashion industry. It explores the role of fashion photography as a medium through which these discourses are conveyed, specifically in its endeavour to redefine Moroccan cultural identity.

The sustainable microwave approach to H2S and RSH activation into Di- and Trisulfides in N-Methylpyrrolidone

A reagent- and waste-free method for the transformation of hydrogen sulfide and thiols with С3-С8 hydrocarbons groups into value-added di- and trisulfides is proposed under the microwave irradiation. The hydrogen sulfide solution in N-methylpyrrolidone was used as the reaction medium to occur the interaction with different thiols. The influence of the microwave irradiation power, duration, the temperature and thiol structure on the yield and ratio of target products has been investigated. It is found that the effective microwave power for activation of H2S and RSH should be at least 200 W, while increasing the reaction temperature reduces the contact time. The maximum values for the yield of di- and trisulfides were obtained at 280 W and 100 °C. High selectivity of trisulfide formation was observed in the case of alkanethiols C3-C5, especially for compounds with isomeric hydrocarbons groups. Differences in the mechanisms of H2S interaction with linear and branched thiols based on the formation of alkylhydropolysulfide intermediates have been identified. The proposed scheme of utilization of H2S and low-molecular-weight thiols into organic polysulfides under microwave irradiation was suggested.

The Impact Of Military Assistance On International Political Dynamics

Abstract This research explores the intricate interplay between military assistance and international political dynamics, focusing on its implications for regional power structures. Grounded in Power Transition Theory, the study aims to unravel the complex web of relationships influenced by military aid, examining its intended and unintended consequences. Leveraging qualitative research methods through the analysis of secondary data, three key dimensions are investigated: Military Assistance and Power Transition Theory, Unveiling Diplomatic Dynamics: Military Assistance, Bilateral Relations, and Alliance Politics, and Unintended Consequences: Military Assistance, Security Dynamics, and the Specter of Arms Races. The findings highlight the multifaceted impact of military assistance on regional power dynamics, shedding light on its role in shaping diplomatic relations, influencing alliance politics, and potentially triggering unintended security consequences such as the specter of arms races. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how military aid shapes the global geopolitical landscape. In conclusion, it emphasizes the need for nuanced policy considerations to mitigate unintended outcomes while harnessing the potential positive impacts of military assistance. Keywords: alliance politics, bilateral relations, diplomatic dynamics, military assistance, power transition

Judith Butler's theoretical perspectives within a nursing context-a scoping review.

Philosopher Judith Butler has influenced how people talk about vulnerable bodies and sees vulnerability as universal, existential, and relational. Being vulnerable is part of the human condition. The main theoretical areas that run across Butler's work; power, knowledge and subjectivity, performativity, and ethics-are of particular relevance to nursing practice. This review aims to explore how Butler's theoretical work is reflected in research literature within a nursing context. We conducted a scoping review guided by Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework. A systematic literature search of CINAHL (EBSCOhost), MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), and Web of Science identified 15 papers. Butler's theoretical work was applied at an individual and social level in research literature within a nursing context. Nurses need to reflect on their clinical practice and role as health professionals in relation to power and performativity in encounters with patients who are marginalized. Nurses' working conditions, recognition, and understanding are strongly influenced by society, and calling nurses heroes undermines their capacity to challenge and resist the hero identity. The healthcare system's impact on patient-nurse encounters challenges patients' and nurses' subjectivity, performativity, and power relations. The review allowed us to describe how Butler's theoretical work can facilitate a reflection on nursing practice which is a prerequisite for caring, ethical relationships, and working conditions within a nursing context. Butler's concepts can provide useful perspectives on how nurses understand, communicate with, and care for patients, as well as a nuanced understanding of the nursing role and power relations and structures.

A Postcolonial Feminist Perspective on Traditional Birth Attendants and Management of Pregnancy Complications Among Indigenous Women in Rural Nigeria

The work of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in the Global South continues to be pivotal to the operations of rural healthcare services, especially as formal healthcare services often malfunction in rural communities, as in rural Nigeria, where TBAs preponderantly conduct deliveries among Indigenous women. This study examines TBAs’ management of delivery complications in rural Nigeria among Indigenous women using a sample of TBAs and TBAs’ service users. The study adopts a qualitative methodology involving focus groups of TBAs’ service users and interviews of TBAs to determine TBAs’ effectiveness in managing obstetric complications, considering their differentiation in terms of service competence. The study apprehends the phenomenon through a postcolonial feminist theoretical lens. The results show that TBAs have differential capabilities in the management of cases and their perception and interpretation of problems determined whether physical or metaphysical strategies were employed in their work. While some TBAs competently managed the presented cases, others invited either TBA colleagues or traditional resource persons to assist in such dire moments. Even though the TBAs—victims of patriarchy and colonial subjugation—continue to be marginalized and subjugated by male-dominated colonial and neocolonial power structures, they have significantly transformed their values to create a model for rural social work that provides social and emotional support to Indigenous women in rural spaces. The study therefore identifies a social policy and social work imperative for ideas sharing between different forms of Westernized healthcare practitioners and TBAs to engender the best health outcomes for rural Indigenous women.

Analysis of prospects for the use of the terahertz frequency range for special purpose wireless communication networks.

Frequencies from 100 GHz to 3 THz are promising ranges for a new generation of wireless communication systems due to wide spectrum bands. These frequencies also offer the potential for revolutionary applications made possible by new thinking and advances in devices, circuits, software, signal processing and systems. But the transition to the real use of the terahertz range as a frequency resource in the provision of communication services for applications in special purpose wireless communication networks is accompanied by many problems of spectrum management, network analysis, design and optimization of the architecture of these networks. The novelty of this work is due to the fact that, despite the fact that in recent years a number of review publications by domestic and foreign authors have been published, but in the aspects of development and specifics of possible applications of wireless communication networks of the terahertz frequency range in solving problems with power structures and forces special operations were not considered. The authors focused special attention on highlighted domestic developments in the field of wireless access systems in the terahertz range. The purpose of the work is an analytical review of the features of the transition to the real use of the terahertz frequency range as a frequency resource in the provision of communication services by resource-intensive applications by wireless communication networks for promising applications in solving special problems by power structures. In the work, a systematic analysis and classification of the main areas of promising applications of wireless communication networks of the terahertz frequency range in solving problems by special-purpose power structures is made, and scientific research tasks are given for the transition to the real use of the terahertz frequency range as a frequency resource in the provision of communication services for special purpose applications. The author's proposals developed in this work for promising applications of terahertz communication networks by special operations forces or special purpose forces are the theoretical basis for creating a methodological apparatus for substantiating recommendations for the selection of promising applications when using terahertz communication networks by special operations forces when performing special purpose tasks.

National Wounds and Gendered Harm: Reframing Abortion Pain in The Worst of Times

In light of abortion’s recurrent political centrality in the United States, examining abortion narratives remains critically urgent. This article analyzes the abortion narratives found in the 1993 anthology The Worst of Times compiled by Patricia G. Miller, which collects individual stories of illegal abortions from the post–World War II years. It analyzes these narratives in the context of the postwar period’s growing sensational political fascination with abortion pain, alongside the second-wave feminist positioning of abortion as the paramount feminist issue and inherent basis of feminist community. Against these discourses, the semi-anonymous narrators of The Worst of Times disrupt hierarchized, universal, and exclusionary models of pain. Rather, this article argues that, in constructing life writing centered around the painful experience of illegal abortion, the narrators’ experiences cohere into relational clusters that evince commonalities while also maintaining differences. In engaging with their painful abortion experiences, these narratives reshape the medical, national, and feminist power structures that attempted to define the pain that abortion signified. In a moment when abortion legislation faces continued assaults, these narratives invite a consideration of how the embodied, personal pain of abortion can facilitate creative models of community that rethink the power structures that restrict reproductive autonomy.

Assessing rural land use in contemporary China: Data compilation and methodology

In rural areas, land use decisions are not only shaped by economic considerations but also deeply influenced by cultural and social factors. The objective of this research is to examine the complex and diverse aspects of making decisions about how land is used in rural communities, specifically by investigating the influence of cultural and social elements. Using empirical data and rigorous analysis, this research examine how traditional practices, social norms, and community dynamics influence land use patterns. The research topic focuses on the need to have a thorough understanding of the fundamental elements that affect land use choices in rural regions, going beyond only economic incentives. This research objective is to address a significant vacuum in the current literature by examining the cultural and social aspects of land usage. This research provides vital insights for policymakers and stakeholders engaged in land management and rural development projects. This research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, using qualitative interviews, participatory observations, and quantitative surveys to collect comprehensive data on the cultural and socioeconomic elements that impact land use choices. The research sample includes a wide range of rural areas, guaranteeing a thorough representation of various cultural settings and socioeconomic backgrounds. Our study reveals that cultural traditions, social networks, and power structures have a substantial impact on land use practices in rural regions. Traditional land tenure systems, community ownership arrangements, and customary land-use practices play a vital role in influencing land-use choices and resource distribution within communities. The significance of these results is substantial for policymakers, land managers, and rural development practitioners. Policymakers may create land use policies and actions that are more appropriate to the specific cultural and socioeconomic environment by understanding the complex relationship between these aspects. Furthermore, promoting community involvement and allowing local actors to participate in decision-making may result in land management results that are both more sustainable and fair.

Rise of Global South and changes in contemporary international order

The rise of the Global South, already an important factor in contemporary global politics, has initiated and will continue to instigate huge changes in international order. Since World War II, the rise of the Global South has transitioned through three stages: decolonization (1945–1989), globalization (1990–2008), and the rise of emerging economies as a group (since 2009). Countries in the South acted first as “rebels”, then “responsive participants” and now as “active agents” within the system. Through the three stages of development, the rise of the Global South has caused varying changes in international order at different levels and in different regions and fields. These changes, however, all manifest in three aspects: power structure, modes of international interactions, and international rules and systems. Revealing the interactions and mechanisms between the rise of the Global South and the changes in contemporary international order both vertically and horizontally will contribute to further understanding the great changes and general direction of today’s world politics.

Antiracist Anger as Social and Moral Inquiry in Colectivo Ayllu's Devuélvannos el oro: Cosmovisiones perversas y acciones anticoloniales (2018)

Abstract: My essay looks at how diasporic, racialized, and sexually-and gender dissident voices that collaborated with Colectivo Ayllu in their first year of residency at CRA Matadero Madrid (2017–18) approach antiracist activism from a decolonial feminist perspective that analyzes gender and sexuality in relation to race and coloniality. I analyze Devuélvannos el oro: Cosmovisiones perversas y acciones anticoloniales , a compilation of visual, poetic, and essayistic pieces curated by Ayllu that emerge from experiential and political reflections, as well as anticolonial actions developed during the group's residency. I read Ayllu's emancipatory thinking first within a view of decolonial epistemology that enacts situated notions of knowledge, beauty, and truth outside Eurocentric frameworks. I also bring to light a concurrent understanding of decolonized epistemology that permeates Devuélvannos 's project and allows for making normative truth claims about systems of inequality and human flourishing. I discuss the consequences of both (compatible) notions of decolonial epistemology in Ayllu's formulation of antiracism activism. My essay bridges critical lenses from postpositivist realist theories of identity, women of color feminism and decolonial feminism to the study of emotions as embodied forms of knowledge that may offer "clarity" and insight into how ideologies and structures of power operate in a society.