Subordinate Position Research Articles

Prolegomeni allo studio dei parlanti ereditari di sardo

When a minority language holds a subordinate position and is neglected or abandoned in family communication, some speakers acquire it imperfectly, resulting in limited proficiency; these individuals are known as heritage speakers. However, some heritage speakers later develop an attachment to their ancestral language and choose to study it in formal or informal educational settings, becoming heritage learners. This study focuses on heritage learners of Sardinian, a Romance language spoken in Sardinia. Today, most Sardinian residents under fifty primarily speak Italian, but there is a growing interest in Sardinian language courses aimed at reconnecting community members with their linguistic heritage. This research examines the grammatical and lexical competence of a sample of these heritage learners, particularly focusing on areas identified in the literature as vulnerable to erosion and interference from Italian. Specifically, it will demonstrate that in instances of grammatical or lexical divergence between Sardinian and Italian, heritage learners tend to accept both idiomatic Sardinian forms and Italian-influenced forms, indicating significant interference in their proficiency of the minority language. This study aims to help language teachers develop targeted interventions to enhance the competence of heritage learners, differentiating from curricula designed for second language learners of Sardinian when necessary.

Pain During Incarceration: Searching for Safety in Hypermasculine Correctional Settings.

Hypermasculine prison culture produces hierarchies based on individuals' ability to assert dominance through strength and violence. Pain can impact physical strength, thereby limiting the ability to elevate or maintain social status within such hierarchies. The aim of the study was to explore the pain experiences of incarcerated men who were embedded into hypermasculine prison culture. Interpretive description co-positioned with relational ethics informed the study design. Twelve males participated in 1-hour interviews, which were transcribed verbatim and analyzed inductively to identify themes. The data analysis occurred in three phases: sorting and organizing, making sense of patterns, and transforming patterns into findings. We found that correctional settings were characterized by a social culture of toxic hypermasculinity that influenced the pain experiences of people who were incarcerated. Individuals who experienced pain were more vulnerable to self-isolation in situations in which pain threatened their ability to defend themselves and their previously established social status within the prison hierarchy. Yet, those who felt secure in subordinate hierarchical positions and had effective peer relationships perceived greater safety in communal settings, which proved to be a distraction from pain. In the context of incarceration, positive peer relationships and perceptions of safety positively influenced individuals' experience of pain.

Labour platforms as mechanisms of class reproduction: middle-class interests as the basis of worker consent

Expansion of the platform economy has given rise to a paradox in the literature on gig work: Given capital’s imposition of algorithmic controls, why do so many platform workers express support and appreciation for gig work, viewing it as enhancing their autonomy? Approaches toward this question have advanced numerous explanations, such as gamification, neoliberal norms, and entrepreneurial culture. We find these efforts only partially successful, as they fail to explain why ideological incorporation so readily succeeds. We argue that responses to gig work are a function of the class positions that gig workers hold in the wider society, which lead to distinct orientations that they bring to gig work. For workers with a foothold in the middle class, gig work provides access to job rewards that may no longer be available via the conventional economy alone. They consequently experience gig work as a labour of affirmation – a stark contrast with the experience of those gig workers who hold subordinate positions in the class structure. Interview data with 70 respondents in the ride-hail, grocery-shopping and food-delivery sectors supports this approach. Consent to gig work is strongest among our better-off respondents, who hold more secure positions in the conventional economy and use gig work as a culturally-sanctioned mechanism of class reproduction. The implication is that class-based divisions among the platform workforce warrant greater attention than labour process theory has allowed.

Hegemonic Party System and Federalism

The paper inquiries into the fixture of the hegemonic Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Party (EPRDF) in the operation of the Ethiopian federal constitutional order. It finds out the federal malfunction of EPRDF. The hegemonic political program of the front, which took the shape of a non-competitive dominant party was not in line with the constitutional diversity of the federal system, as it delinked the constitutional right to self-determination and federal autonomy from the options of multiparty politics. On the structure of EPRDF, equal representation was favorable to the federal politics of diversity accommodation and minority protection. However, the exclusiveness of its structure from the “affiliate” parties had the effects of a narrow-based federal shared-rule, as EPRDF which was the only channel to influence the center. Party-state inseparability was the other gap to the check of power and in establishing the neutrality of the state to deal with ethnic-driven conflict, as a major pathology to the stability of ethnic federal systems. Finally, the power nucleus in the EPRDF created the dominance of TPLF at the perils of diminishing the representative legitimacy and the subordinate position of the “affiliate parties” to EPRDF.

Ideals and Reality of Public Health Nursing in Korea: Influence of U.S. Nurse Advisors, 1945~1961.

South Korea's national healthcare system after liberation often described as transformation from 'sanitation' to 'public health'. The U.S. military government introduced public health nursing as the primary vehicle for communicating the newly introduced concept of public health to the Korean public. This meant that nursing, which had been in a subordinate position within the healthcare system during the Japanese occupation, had to be repositioned within the healthcare system as an independent and leading professional agent of healthcare. At the same time creating positions for public health nurses within the newly envisioned health center system, and convincing the public that nurses were the primary agents of public health activities. Yet, in resource limited setting, the role of public health nurses was significantly scaled back. Initial plans for institutionalized, community-wide health care through home visits shifted to addressing the challenges facing Korean society, including maternal and child health and infectious disease prevention. Ironically, the expansion of health centers during late 1950s diminished the position of public health nurses within local government health systems, who were gradually replaced by male administrative staff. The role of public health nurses was greatly curtailed in the 1960s, but they laid the groundwork for later community nursing and health care efforts. At the same time, public health nurses were assigned with new role of 'visiting' local health centers for observation, education, and management. Public health nursing allows to look beyond the ideological and institutional dimensions to examine how new concepts and practices of "public health" were actually transmitted to communities in post-liberation Korea.

Defending the climate cause within the state: the ministry of ecology and the drafting of France’s national low-carbon strategy (2017–2020)

ABSTRACT National climate policies have generated a considerable body of research in academic literature. Focusing on the little-studied case of France, this article examines the way in which, in this country, the State has drafted its latest low-carbon strategy (SNBC). Drawing on approaches such as ‘bureaucratic politics’ and ‘administrative capacity’, it questions the ability of the administration responsible for writing this document (and thus defending the climate cause) to make its voice heard within the political-administrative arena. Based on an in-depth sociological study, this article shows that this administration found itself in a position of ‘powerlessness’, due to three main factors: instrumental (the limited scope of the tool, reflecting an initial will to reduce its impact), organizational (the subordinate position of this administration within the bureaucratic hierarchy) and political (weak support from government). The result is a contested strategy, unlikely to bring about a credible roadmap to implement the necessary changes.

СОЦИАЛЬНО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ РЕГИОНОВ РОССИИ И ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ СУВЕРЕНИТЕТ

The unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia and the changing production chains in the world have set our country the task of forming its own technological base to ensure the country's security. Based on Russia's existing groundwork, social significance and multiplier effect, the pharmaceutical industry, aircraft and rocket engineering, as well as microelectronics and artificial intelligence are the most promising. Despite investments in these industries, Russia is still experiencing import dependence in each of them. To solve this problem, this article proposes the use of strategic planning with the large-scale use of state regulation tools. The scientific novelty of this article consists in proving that the control of technology in the GVC strengthens the subordinate position of developing countries. In addition, the industries that ensure technological sovereignty are identified

The Israelite Community Council of Sidon 1914–1948: Between the Yishuv and Grand Liban

Abstract The history of the Jews of Lebanon is often overlooked—they are considered victims of the Arab–Israeli conflict, or within the context of the wider Levantine Jewish community. Sidon, a port city of biblical origins, is a distinct case study through which to examine the interplay between Zionism and Lebanese nationalism because of Sidon’s historical background, geographic proximity to Palestine, and subordinate position to the Beiruti Jewish community. I show how the Israelite Community Council operated within a contested national-ethnic sphere, where it effectively straddled the Zionism promoted by members of the Yishuv and the emerging Lebanese nationalism of the newly established Grand Liban. Initially seeing itself as part of the Land of Israel/Eretz Israel, the Jewish community of Sidon asserted itself within the multiconfessional Lebanese state. Sitting at the crossroads of competing ethnonational currents, Sidon’s Jewish community leaders espoused a fluid, local-territorial-based identity, one that was at ease both with Jewish and Lebanese nationalism. We expand our understanding of this now dispersed community through an examination of the evolution of national borders, intercommunal relationships, and engagement with the Yishuv.

Asset-manager society and international financial subordination

AbstractThis essay critically engages with the concept of asset-manager society (AMS) proposed by Brett Christophers. We begin by drawing out its five key elements through a contrast with the related but distinct concept of asset-manager capitalism. We then ask to what extent AMS can be observed in the countries of the Global South, which are characterised by a subordinate position in international money and financial markets. We conclude by highlighting some potential implications of the rise of AMS in these economies and offering some broader thoughts on the future.

Burmese migrant domestic workers’ foodwork and biopedagogies in pandemic Singapore

COVID-19 not only increased food insecurity across the globe but has also given rise to pandemic-induced “biopedagogies,” a concept premised on conflating health with instructions on the “bios,” including how to live healthily, what to eat, and how much. Based on 24 qualitative interviews with low-waged migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore hailing from Myanmar, we explore how migrant women articulate and develop their own biopedagogical practices under pandemic-constrained circumstances. While live-in MDWs are invariably involved in preparing food for employers’ families as part of their care duties, and despite originating from historically food-producing regions, they are vulnerable to urban and cultural food insecurities at destination sites of migration given their diminished rights and subordinate positions in the household. Yet, these migrant women express agency in enacting counter-practices through their foodwork in at least two ways. First, MDWs cultivate self-care through cooking and consuming home foods during the pandemic and negotiating enough fortifying food for themselves while living in employers’ households. Secondly, through remittance-sending to left-behind families and children, they enact long-distance maternal carework through foodwork for health. We uncover how MDWs’ foodwork achieve a measure of food security despite language barriers, limited economic resources, lack of access to culturally appropriate foods at destination, and distance from their families. Experiencing vulnerability in terms of their occupational position, their plate, and the pandemic, this paper uncovers the stressors in achieving food security and health for themselves and families’ while working in Singapore.

Belarus’ Sovereignty in Question: Assessing its de facto Sovereign Status in the Shadow of Russia

The paper explores state sovereignty by developing a systematic framework for categorising states based on their sovereignty status. At the heart of our analysis lies the distinction between sovereign states and satellite states – a distinction that has significant implications for global security, stability, and the balance of power. While sovereign states exercise full autonomy and control over their affairs, satellite states often find themselves in a subordinate position, heavily influenced or even dominated by external powers. A theoretical framework deconstructs the concept of sovereignty into four crucial elements: authority, legitimacy, independence, and territoriality, which provide a structured assessment of the level of sovereignty in a state and serve as the basis for our analysis. To illustrate the application of our framework, we adopt a case study approach focused on Belarus. As a nation situated at the crossroads of Eastern Europe with a history marked by geopolitical contestation and strategic manoeuvring, Belarus provides a compelling context for examining sovereignty dynamics. Through a systematic analysis of Belarus’ political, economic, and military landscape, we seek to assess its sovereignty status within the framework of our analysis. While the topic of Belarus’ sovereignty and integration within Russia has been extensively explored over the years, the innovative contribution of this paper lies in purposefully designed methodology for sovereignty assessment and the use of the latest empirical data while practically applying the model for the case of Belarus.

The effects of hierarchical relationship on well-being of surgical team members in operating theaters: Prospective cohort study.

Although there are many studies about wellbeing on healthcare professionals, the relationship between hierarchy and well-being has not been studied much. In this study, we focused on surgical branch professionals (anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses) as organized in a strict hierarchy. We explored the association between the position within the organizational hierarchy in operating theaters and well-being. Data were collected in 2 parts as cross-sectional (baseline) and daily surveys (for 15 days). A total of 226 participants participated in the baseline study and 156 participants in the daily surveys. How hierarchical positions, in-group identification and personality traits were related to the well-being and experiences of surgical team members were investigated. System justification, social dominance orientation, and personality theories were used to investigate personality traits. Emotional stability and identification with other healthcare professionals were positively associated with positive experience and well-being. Daily hierarchical relationship when the team members were in a superior position was positively associated with that day's well-being, positive experience, enjoying working, and motivation to work on the following day. Conversely, the negative effects of daily hierarchical relationships on outcomes were not seen when the participants were in a subordinate position. Our findings were parallel to the literature that perceived autonomy in the workplace has positive impacts on the well-being. Furthermore, we found that in-group identification can protect surgical branch professionals from the adverse effects of the organizational hierarchy. We suppose our findings can contribute to the literature to evaluate organizational structure of operating theaters.

Нагорный Карабах — 2023: проблемы международно-правовой квалификации

The Second Karabakh War of 2020, which ended with the defeat of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and Armenia supporting it, reversed the balance of power but did not resolve the conflict. The absolute superiority of Azerbaijan — both military and political, the insufficient clarity of the Statement of 9 November, the remaining contradictions between the parties — all this created the preconditions for the Third War, which began on 19 September 2023 and lasted only one day. The eventual defeat of the NKR and the transfer of the entire region under Azerbaijani jurisdiction, however, does not appear to be the final point: Azerbaijan demands the eight occupied villages and insists on the extraterritoriality of the Zangezur corridor. This article continues an article published in 2021 and dedicated to the legal aspects of the 2020 conflict. The author describes developments after 2020; analyses the use of force and assesses new interpretations of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter; gives qualification to the blockade of the Lachin corridor and the Armenian exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh in autumn 2020; examines some aspects of the right to self-determination that became relevant in 2023; defines the remaining territorial disputes; and assesses the effectiveness of the settlement formats. In legal terms, the 2023 conflict significantly improved the position of Armenia and the Armenians of Nagorny Karabakh; in the final analysis, it can be argued that the blockade and the 19 September attack created the preconditions for a remedial secession, the realisation of which, however, is unrealistic. Some of the new qualifications are based on scientific hypotheses that reflect progressive trends in the development of law rather than being an established element of it. Politically, on the contrary, the conflict has seriously worsened Armenia’s situation. There are several scenarios for the development of events. The first assumes the satisfaction of all Azerbaijan’s claims and Armenia’s transition to a subordinate position; the second — modification of the status quo through compromise regimes built on the basis of mutual respect and equality; the third — restoration of the status quo as it existed or should have existed at the time of the collapse of the USSR. This scenario seems realistic and fair; its realisation, however, is impossible without the participation of external actors: Russia, Iran, Turkey, the West, the US and China. Unfortunately, the position of these actors is not consolidated, while the Caucasus is still perceived as a peripheral region unworthy of the attention paid to some other regions.

‘Never have they had any chance to spread their wings’: The construction of agency and socio-gender identity of Iranian women

This paper intends to study how the agency and social-gender identity of Iranian women are constructed through social-cultural-political structures. To this end, we conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with Iranian citizens, both men and women in the context of the Zan-Zendegi-Azadi (Women-Life-Freedom) movement in Iran. This study is grounded upon the main tenets of Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA), seeking to give voice to the oppressed and minorities and reverberate the alternatives to make the world a better place. Findings suggest that certain suppressive social-political-cultural structures in the course of history have largely confined women’s agency in practising their fundamental civil rights and have given them a subordinate position in society, thereby preventing them from constructing independent social-gender identity and status both at social and familial terrains. Analyses also indicated that such structures are constructed and naturalised in the course of history with political systems buttressing domination over women.

Gerakan Perlawanan Body Shaming melalui Musik Video Lagu Berhak Bahagia

This research was motivated by the many acts of body shaming that attack women. The emergence of society's views regarding ideal body image encourages people, whether consciously or not, to compare themselves with other people. Women's space for movement becomes narrow due to patriarchy which regulates men in a dominant position while women are in a subordinate position. This is why women experience body shaming more often than men. The impacts range from a person's lack of self-confidence to mental disorders. Basically everyone can be a target for body shaming, such as Aurel Hermansyah. Aurel Hermansyah experienced body shaming through social media comments when she was pregnant with her first child because she was considered to have changed her body shape. The negative comments given to Aurel Hermansyah made Atta Hlilintar release a song entitled Berhak Bahagia. Therefore, this research aims to determine the form of resistance of the anti-body shaming movement in the song Berhak Bahagia. Using qualitative methods with a critical approach. The data collection techniques used were observation, literature study and documentation.

Influence of socio-demographic factors on the use of maternal health care among Muslim women in urban slums of Mumbai, India

Background: Low and middle-income countries such as India face significant challenges in improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality rate. To combat this problem, it is essential to utilize maternal health-care services. Objective: This study aims to assess the utilization of maternal health-care services (Antenatal care [ANC] and skilled attendance at birth) and the determining factors of maternal health-care utilization. Materials and Methods: This study is cross-sectional. The study is carried out in an urban slum in Mumbai, India. The respondents were selected using a multistage sampling procedure, and 300 Muslim women who delivered in the past 2 years in the reproductive age group (15–49 years) were selected. The data were collected using a structured interview schedule. Data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. Results: The study shows that maternal health-care utilization among respondents was unsatisfactory. Only 43.8% of the respondents utilized full ANC service and 27.3% still delivered at home with unskilled birth attendance (traditional Dai). A medical emergency, high cost, and lack of quality of services were the most common reasons to deliver at home. Respondents’ age at marriage, education (respondents and partners), monthly income, number of children, and type of family are the most important determining factors for the utilization of maternal health-care services. Conclusion: Better utilization of maternal health-care services can be achieved by improving the overall socioeconomic status of Muslim women. To improve maternal healthcare, special attention is required to be paid to the education of women and spouses. Furthermore, policies may address the women’s subordinate position in socioeconomic parameters. Similarly, close monitoring is required by the government through different agencies on the utilization of maternal health-care services.

The Lingering Banners of Hong Kong ‘National Day’

AbstractWhat remains of a national day after it has passed? Weeks after it has ended banners celebrating China's ‘birthday’ on October first can still be seen all over Hong Kong. As government and pro‐China organizations hang up banners and flags all around Hong Kong, celebrating the birthday of the nation. These flags remind the people in Hong Kong that they are part of China, despite some thinking otherwise. I argue that these banners serve to 1. Remind people of Hong Kong's subordinate position within the nation state of China, 2. Show how the nation is performed, and 3. force the nation onto people as a forceful rather than a banal gesture. Drawing on theories of affect and space, ethnography, and photos taken by the author, this study adds to the theory and process of everyday nation‐making.

Female desire in phallocentric industries: A duo-ethnographic interrogation

The persistence of workplace inequality requires female subjects to examine their place in exploitative systems of production and consumption, and to identify means for emancipation beyond masculine dominant orders. In this paper we examine our past experiences as young women in the finance and oil industries, the phallocentric and extractive engines of global capitalism. We do this by employing a duo-ethnographic approach and a feminist reading of Jacques Lacan’s ideas on sexual difference, aiming to contribute to the literature on female identification in phallocentric organizations. Our analysis reveals how we oscillated between accepting subordinate feminine subject positions linked to emotional work and striving to access ‘universal’ masculine subject positions linked to success and achievement. At the same time, we both engaged with imaginaries of uniqueness and critique, control and success in order to keep functioning in our roles. Both our stories feature moments of rupture experienced as affective embodied responses, when our organizations placed ourselves or others at risk. We analyse these as moments when cracks were exposed in our fantasmatic survival strategies, leading to our eventual exit from these industries. We conclude that while a feminist Lacanian framework provides a useful lens for understanding processes of female identification in phallocentric organizations, the quest for female desire and subjectivity outside the masculine dominant order requires other (feminist) frameworks.

Geopolitičke (ne)prilike vs. "zakasnelo" reagovanje spoljnopolitičke službe Severne Makedonije u procesu evropskih integracija

In the case study of the foreign policy of North Macedonia, we can clearly see how global events, viewed from the perspective of geopolitical circumstances, do not always and as a rule have a direct impact on national internal and regional events in the Western Balkans, nor on the foreign policy actions of the Western Balkan six. In the paper, four determinants were singled out, on the basis of which explanations were provided, in a scientific and research context, why the foreign policy mechanism of North Macedonia "failed" in the process of achieving defined foreign policy goals, above all the basic goal - the country's accession to the European Union. At the same time, the lack of effectiveness of foreign policy action was not in a cause-and-effect relationship with wider European and international geopolitical circumstances. The internal armed conflict in North Macedonia, which threatened to develop into a civil war between the dominant ethnic communities of Macedonians and Albanians, is the first indicator, i.e. the determinant of the explanation why the foreign policy mechanism of North Macedonia "failed" in the process of this country joining the European Union. Another significant moment that was missed in the European integration process of Skopje, covers the period from 2006 to 2017 with two stages: the period leading up to the NATO Summit in Bucharest in 2008 and the period after this summit, up to the change of power of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, which has led to a multiple crisis within that country. The postponement of North Macedonia's accession to NATO in 2008, due to Greece's express refusal, with a focus on connecting the Macedonian nation with the heritage of the ancient Macedonians, with the simultaneous suspension of democratic capacities and principles that represent significant determinants in the process of joining the European Union, leads to missing out and moving away from the path accelerated European integration of North Macedonia. As a third determinant, pervasive corruption was singled out, which affected all levels of government, so that the internal circumstances in North Macedonia actually "worked to the advantage" of the European Union, which at that time as a whole, and also individual member states of the Union, were also moving further away from the policy of enlargement as a mechanism in the process of European integration of both North Macedonia and the remaining countries of the Western Balkans. The aforementioned challenges, which North Macedonia has been facing for almost thirty years, are not in a cause-and-effect relationship with external, whether regional, European or international, geopolitical circumstances and trends. We are talking about challenges that, regardless of the geopolitical dimension of the enlargement of the European Union from the point of view of Brussels and the member states of the European Union, significantly affect the dynamics of North Macedonia's accession to the European Union, that is, the effectiveness of the process of realizing this strategic foreign policy goal. However, it is important to mention the foreign policy action of North Macedonia from the point of view of international law and the provisions of the UN Charter, which represents a strong fourth determinant in the context of the realization of North Macedonia's foreign policy goals. Here, it was possible to see how the international positioning of North Macedonia is conditioned to the detriment of the provisions and norms of international law. In this way, the principles of equality, sovereignty and political independence were placed in a subordinate position in relation to the factual political powers in interstate relations, directly harming the principle of self-determination, in the context of the identity attributes of North Macedonia and the Macedonian people.In the period when geopolitical circumstances were favourable to North Macedonia, the opportunity for this country to become a member of the European Union was missed, thus achieving a strategic foreign policy goal, which in the context of the EU did not cause any consequences when it comes to the EU itself. However, the consequences for North Macedonia itself remained and only in the following period did the circumstances worsen and lead this country to a longer and more difficult path to accession. The future policy should be based on strong tactical tools, which are sufficiently flexible in relation to regional and international trends. First of all, North Macedonia needs a strong internal institutional infrastructure, which simultaneously ensures political, social and economic stability and predictability. In this way, it would be possible to realize the established goals of the foreign policy of North Macedonia.

Unveiling the Gap: Exploring Gender Inequality in Economic Empowerment Across India

Gender inequality in economic empowerment remains a pervasive issue across the globe, manifesting in various forms such as unequal pay, limited access to economic resources, and disparities in employment opportunities and career advancement. This systemic imbalance stifles not only individual potential but also hampers overall economic growth and development. While this inequality exists universally, it is particularly pronounced in Indian society, rooted in deeply embedded cultural norms and historical gender roles. Traditionally, women's subordinate position has deprived them of asset ownership and participation in financial decision-making. Additionally, they have been denied employment opportunities and face discrimination in the labor market. These factors have led to a significant gender gap in economic participation at both household and societal levels. In this context, this study attempts to examine the gender inequality in economic empowerment in India through the lens of asset ownership, wage disparity, and labor force participation. This study is based on secondary data taken from the reports of the National Family Health Survey and the Periodic Labour Force Survey of the Government of India. The study found that, the female labour force participation rate was 46.2 per cent less than the male labour force participation rate and on an average, women earned Rs. 136.32 less than men in daily wage earnings. The study concludes that addressing gender inequality in economic empowerment requires a comprehensive approach at the policy, organizational, and societal level, including implementing and enforcing gender-sensitive labor laws, promoting equal pay for equal work, and providing affordable childcare and parental leave to level the playing field.