Western Scholars Research Articles

Entrepreneurship in The Light of The Qur’an, Ḥadīth, And Iqbal’s Philosophy

This research examines the differences between Islamic and Western perspectives on entrepreneurship and linked it with Iqbal’s philosophy so that Muslim entrepreneurs can understand the significance of Islam's guiding principles and teachings as they forge ahead in their ventures. This research highlights all the values, principles, and teachings of Islam concerning entrepreneurship because, in today's dynamical changing world, every Muslim entrepreneur wants to be successful but doesn't value the founding principles. This research is divided into two sections: the first section explains the significance of business activity by citing verses from the Glorious Qur’an and Ḥadīth from the Holy Prophet (PBUH), while the second section uses the poetry of Allama Muhammad Iqbal to emphasize the characteristics and approach of successful business owners and the benefits of adhering to Islamic principles in the course of doing business. Iqbal employed unique words like ‘Khudi’ that are hard to describe and grasp. Khudi was explained differently by each scholar. This study used the concept of khudi as Perceived Entrepreneurial Self‐Efficacy and justify by western scholars of entrepreneurship.

The metacognitive experience of time passing in Chinese college students: scale development, structure verification, and influencing factors.

The experience of time passing (ETP) is also the consciousness of the progress of life. ETP contributes to time regulation and life management, which basically conforms to the metacognitive theory. Also, the traditional Chinese cultural approach to time emphasizes ETP. It is an indispensable part of Chinese education and culture to strengthen one's appreciation of time by emphasizing the passage of time. In combination with the above two points, ETP equals metacognitive experience of time passing (METP) to a certain extent. However, we currently know little about the connotations of METP. To better understand traditional Chinese time culture, and referring to the concept of metacognition and model of time experience as proposed by Western scholars, the current study combined the results of open and semi-structured interviews, to explore the structure of METP in Chinese college students and developed a questionnaire with which to measure it. Using convenience sampling, 2,876 college students were recruited, the interview, and the reliability and validity tests were carried out. Five hundred and seventy-nine college students were tested a second time to investigate the correlation validity between METP and Ruminative Responses, time attitude, and meaning in life. The results led to the development of the METP Scale which contains 15 items and assesses two factors: ruminative and emotional experience of time passing. The two-factor model was well fitted, and invariable in measurements across gender, grade, and major. The internal consistency coefficients of the scale and its two factors ranged from 0.82 to 0.89, the half-point reliability between 0.76 and 0.88, and the retest reliability ranged from 0.77 to 0.78. METP Scale has good correlation validity, meanwhile, the results of regression analysis showed that symptom rumination, positive past, negative present, positive future, and searching for meaning in life significantly predict the intensity of METP.

Western Studies on the Sovietization of Eastern Europe

AbstractThis paper reviews the studies of Western scholars on the Sovietization of Eastern Europe. Internationally, Sovietization was a significant component of the Soviet Union’s strategy in Eastern Europe after 1945. The Sovietization of Eastern Europe involved regulating international relations, defining the boundaries of these countries, determining the ethnic makeup of these countries through expulsion and population transfer, participating in the drafting of these countries’ constitutions, and deciding the composition of their governments. It is believed that Sovietization aimed to change all aspects of human experience and fundamentally rebuild cultural life, making the Soviet official ideology the guiding ideology of individual life in Eastern European countries. In the view of Western scholars, Sovietization led to two consequences. Firstly, it enabled the Soviet Union to hijack Eastern European countries to form the Eastern Bloc, and through COMECON and the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union long controlled Eastern European countries, causing the majority of them to become one side of the Cold War, to deviate from their original socio-economic development trajectory, and to become “The Other” of Europe. Secondly, Sovietization was incompatible with the historical, political, and economic traditions of Eastern European countries in many ways, resulting in Eastern European countries seeking development paths that were in line with their national characteristics and interests in different ways since the mid-1950s, and ultimately leading to dramatic changes in Eastern European politics from 1989 to 1991, completely abandoning the Soviet model and returning to the Western political and economic development models that existed in these countries between the two World Wars.

Eurowhiteness in Science: Privilege Escalation and Intentional Sludge

This article connects Böröcz's (2021) Eurowhiteness concept with a critical dissection of Western European academia's stance on ‘outsiders’, including Eastern Europeans and non‐Europeans. It explains how an exclusivist Western science is created, where, behind the seemingly open and diverse environment, we find monolithic privileges helping participants inside and blocking participation from the outside. The article claims that in the present Western European academic setting, there are two tendencies that seriously harm diversity and the free flow of ideas. First, Western scholarly communities boost their potential through structural advantage. In this environment, scientific excellence becomes a form of privilege. However, it does not necessarily mean proper excellence, but more an exclusionary system of greater financial assets, personal connections, and shared knowhow among the participants, as well as access to gatekeepers. Second, the article uses Cass R. Sunstein's theory on sludge in public management to explain how the European Union boosts this phenomenon with its inequitable ways of allocating research funding: this is how privilege escalation is created through a pseudo‐meritocratic system. Finally, the article explains how Eastern European scholars adhered to these requirements with a self‐colonizing attitude, which limits their long‐term capability to carry out original science.

DUALISME PEMIKIRAN ORIENTALIS TERHADAP SANAD

Since the presence of the Prophet, studies related to hadith have never been obsolete to discuss. Even today, there are not a few intellectuals who discuss hadith, in terms of sanad and matan. Among the groups that actively discuss hadith apart from Muslim intellectuals are the orientalists. There are objective orientalists who aim for intellectual progress, but there are also subjective orientalists whose goals have been contaminated with interests other than science and are also active in blaspheming the substance of Islam. This This qualitative literary article, using descriptive method, aims to explain the thoughts of orientalists regarding hadith, especially about sanad, so that it can be seen that there is a dualism of thought in the body of orientalists regarding sanad. According to Herbert Berg, the hadith orientalist thought model is classified into four groups namely, Skeptics represented by Ignaz and Schacht, Non-Skeptics represented by Abbott, Midlle Ground (middle position) represented by Jyunboll and Motzki then Neo-Skepticism represented by Cook and Calder. However, broadly speaking, these four groups can be merged into two groups, namely skeptics who deny the validity of sanad, such as Ignaz Goldziher and Schacht, who view that only matan has useful historical information, whereas sanad is very limited in terms of its historical value. The second group, namely non-skeptics who are Muslim scholars and some Western scholars (orientalists) such as Nabia Abbott and Harald Motzki view sanad as useful historical information.

Patterns of Transcendence in the Early Buddhist Tradition: The Place of Wilfred Cantwell Smith in the Western Study of the Buddhist Tradition

Abstract This paper[i] examines the ideas of Wilfred Cantwell Smith about the early Buddhist tradition, and his place in the Western studies of Buddhism. It is discussed how the initial efforts of Western scholars paved the way for Buddhist studies to become an academic discipline in European universities. Since the study is about the early Buddhism, the Anglo-German school is focused for their contribution to the study of earlier school known as Theravada. The Theravada tradition strictly rejected the notion of God or divine. Therefore, concepts-such as- Self, Nirvana, and Dharma are of utmost importance in Western interpretive study of early Buddhism. The paper discusses the differences among the Western scholars regarding the meaning of these concepts in order to show Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s contributions in this regard. Smith’s emphasis on the faith of a Buddhist is interconnected with his critique of the notion of ‘religion.’ He is of the view that ‘religion’ as a concept has belittled the importance of faith in transcendence under the impact of modern Western secularism. He significantly emphasizes the notion of Dharma to describe faith in the early Buddhism. Smith considers Dharma as the transcendence with which a faithful Buddhist is involved. This, however, does not preclude Nirvana as an ultimate the transcendence. Hence, if Nirvana is conceptually an unapproachable transcendence that is beyond mundane, Dharma is an achievable transcendence in the mundane realm, according to Smith. Dharma as a transcendent moral ideal, thus, becomes the object of faith in the early Buddhist tradition. In this way, Smith, in addition to his unique analysis, agrees with Western Buddhologists who are not willing to deny divine in the Theravada tradition despite the tradition’s unequivocal rejection of such ideas. [i] The paper is partly based on the PhD dissertation entitled ‘The Notion of Transcendence in the Study of Religion: A Comparative Study between Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Ismail Raji al-Faruqi’ written by the first author of this paper.

Collaborative governance in strong state settings: perceived voluntariness and the role of the state in Rural China

ABSTRACT Can collaborative governance as understood through Western scholarship be enacted in strong state settings? We explore the perceived nature of voluntary participation and the role of the state in long-standing local efforts at cross-sector collaboration in grassland management in China’s autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. We find that collaborative governance appears to be enacted but with variable levels of collaboration and with limited voluntary participation. We also find that the state plays multiple roles in collaboration governance, some coercive while others enabling of performance and that when voluntary participation is present, it raises levels of collaboration and performance outcomes.

A Study of John Burton’s Theory on the Origins of the Hadīth

Western scholars have been interested in the origins and historical reliability of ḥadīth literature since roughly the third quarter of the XIX. century. There have been scholars whose works stand out because of their significance for further Hadīth scholarship and originality. They all claimed crucial problems regarding the origins and transmission of Hadīth and its literature, then struggled to solve them through the modern methods of literary and historical criticism. In this context, John Burton’s (d. 2014) work seems to be highly influenced by his predecessors. Yet, his idea about the role of the Qur’ān in the development of Hadīth literature has still been considered original. Hence, Burton could be considered one of the authors whose ideas on Hadīth scholarship have proven to be influential enough to raise discussions. Burton’s views on the Qur’ān and its history have been studied from different angles by Turkish researchers. But little is known about his theses on the Hadīth literature. This article will focus on how his theory and method on the Qur’ān manuscripts shaped his arguments in An Introduction to the Hadīth. First, there will be a brief introduction to John Burton’s intellectual biography followed by an examination of his main theses regarding the classical Hadīth scholarship. Second, an evaluation and summary of Burton’s ideas on the origins of Hadīth will be presented. Finally, his conclusions will be compared with the views of prominent Western Hadīth scholars such as Ignaz Goldziher (d. 1921) and Joseph Schacht (d. 1969) and will be reviewed from the Islamic perspective.

Enemy at the Gates: Soviet Sambo and the US Martial Arts Community, 1964–1980

Sambo, an acronym commonly derived from the Russian Samozashchita Bez Oruzhiya (self-defence without weapons), is a Soviet created grappling martial art noted for its assortment of painful holds, heavy throws, and take downs. Originally part of a secret military training syllabus with roots in judo, the sport was officially adopted by the USSR All-Union Sports Committee in 1938. Throughout the Cold War period, Soviet sambo slowly inserted itself into the wrestling halls and martial arts dojos of the United States, capturing the attention of American judoka and wrestlers. Sport sambo arrived in the United States at a time in which the Cuban missile crisis remained fresh in the memories of the citizenry while young Americans were being drafted to fight communists in the Vietnam war. Though Cold War tensions had cooled somewhat compared to the days of McCarthyism, the Soviet-US rivalry continued to colour public discourse, permeating every facet of American society. This paper breaks new ground in Western scholarship by analyzing the reception of sambo in the USA during the 1960s and 70s by the professional martial artists and athletes, in the lead up of the 1980 Olympics against the political backdrop of the Cold War.

Portrayal of Russian Foreign Policy towards Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014 in the Western and Russian Academia

This study examines how the Russo-Georgian War in 2008 and the Ukraine Crisis in 2014 were discussed in Western and Russian academic circles. The findings show that historical accounts as well as various theoretical frameworks were used to explain the Russian foreign policy (RFP) regarding these conflicts. In comparison, although mono-theoretical models were utilized in both cases, they are more dominant in the works of Western scholars. On the other hand, inductive historical explanations were used more in the works of Russian scholars. Another important point is that in the latter studies, alternative accounts to the Western unilateralism are more popular. These accounts reveal themselves with concepts such as “multipolar world” or “Eurasianism”. As for the mono theoretical accounts, realist approaches seem to be the dominant framework in both cases. Realist frameworks emphasize the improved material capabilities of Russia and external pressures in its sphere of influence. The later component of the realist approach is stressed more by scholars from both academic circles. Moreover, even the studies that utilize different approaches, such as ideational explanations, domestic political factors, decision-maker related approaches, or the ones that highlight the regional competition, emphasize the role of the strategic or geopolitical imperatives as a factor that cannot be ignored regarding how RFP is formed and implemented.

An Adaptive Research on Chinese and English Code-switching in Happy Camp

Code-switching is a product of language contact between different languages or different varieties of a language. It is a key factor for achieving successful communication. Western scholars have conducted deep researches on code-switching from grammatical approach, sociolinguistic approach, psycholinguistic approach, conversational analysis approach and pragmatic approach. With reference to some constructive views on code-switching, scholars at home conduct more researches on code-switching in foreign language teaching, newspapers, journals and Internet language. TV entertaining program is an important part of people’s cultural life. However, researches on code-switching in this kind of program are fewer. This study chooses 55 episodes of Happy Camp from September of 2017 to September of 2018 as research data and transcribes，categorizes and tallies Chinese and English code-switching in this program. And then based on Poplack’s classification of code-switching and Yu Guodong’s Adaptation Model, syntactic features and pragmatic functions of code-switching in this program are explored.

The Evolution of Feminism in Japan: Issues of Gender and the Perception of Japanese Women

The history and specifics of the feminist movement in Japan have been a topic of interest in the research world for many years. Asian and Western scholars also acknowledge that feminism has a long history in Japan. Although Japan has spent more than 150 years trying to address social issues, the problem of gender inequality remains unresolved. Therefore, this study primarily illustrates the evolution of the feminist movement in Japan, comparing two “waves” of the feminist movement. Furthermore, this paper examines the development of female and male roles as well as gender bias in modern patriarchal society. It provides examples of the most common ideologies, Japanese femininity and masculinity, and the system Fu-you. It also illustrates and explains how traditional roles, Japanese patriarchal ideology, and modern trends coexist in contemporary Japan. Moreover, this study proved that for a significant number of women (65%) in 2021, the so-called "escape route" (i.e., successful marriage) remains a solution to their financial stability. In this study, the following research methods were applied. A thorough historical context analysis (qualitative approach) was required to comprehend the dynamics and specifics of feminism and examine social issues. The principle of historicism (qualitative method) helped to illuminate and compare the impact of the feminist movement and analyze how feminism developed after the Second World War, in the 70-s, in the 90-s, and in contemporary Japan, investigating each period separately or comparing it. Finally, the data analysis and data interpretation research method helped to organize or categorize data.

An Ante Litteram Critique of Orientalism: The Case of Abu’l-Faḍā’il-i-Gulpāyigānī and E.G. Browne

Since the late 1970s, the term Orientalism has been closely associated with Edward Said (d. 2003) and his influential monograph of the same name. First published in 1978, Orientalism advanced a number of critiques about the discipline of “Oriental Studies”, its frequently condescending portrayal and depiction of the Eastern world, and the complex relationship between knowledge and power in the context of the Middle East. As revolutionary as a number of Said’s theses have been, in his critique of Orientalism and in particular his penetrating analysis of the relationship between knowledge and power, Said was not breaking entirely new ground. In fact, seven decades earlier, a voice from the Orient itself, the Persian Bahā’ī scholar Mīrzā Abu’l-Faḍā’il-i Gulpāyigānī (d. 1914), expressed a similar, albeit embryonic, critique of Orientalism. Abu’l-Faḍā’il’s analysis, presented in the opening chapters of his final book Kashfu’l-Ghiṭā’, focused on one of the foremost Orientalists of his time, the Cambridge scholar Edward Granville Browne (d. 1926). Rather than studying the extent to which Browne fits the paradigm of Orientalism (a topic some scholars have previously expressed views on), this article explores ways in which Abu’l-Faḍā’il’s critique of Browne’s study of the Orient can be viewed as a nascent prefiguration of some of the theses developed and advanced by Said decades later. Gulpāyigānī’s precedence as a Bahā’ī scholar in discerning and addressing the link between Western scholars’ knowledge production and the colonial power relations of their respective governments with the countries or areas they studied, helps correct a misconception forged about Bahā’īs. Historical narratives produced in anti-Bahā’ī polemics decades after Gulpāyigānī’s death created a master-narrative that cast Bahā’īs as agents of colonial powers, sweeping under the rug counterarguments such as those posed by Gulpāyigānī’s critique. The authors of this article have been motivated by this corrective goal.

Who Defines Islam? Critical Perspectives on Islamic Studies

This paper endeavors to answer the question of who defines Islam as an academic discipline. Firstly, it discusses the epistemic authority of producers and transmitters of knowledge about Islam. It is argued here that, despite modernization, religious scholars and learning centers in the Muslim world still define, to a certain extent, the main curriculum of texts and interpretations of the Muslim tradition within the discipline of Islamic studies. Furthermore, Western scholars of Islamic studies must navigate between the demands of politics and identity, which put pressure on the discipline. Secondly, this article maps the major models and approaches of Islamic studies at work today. In particular, this section highlights the diversity of research norms and practices in Europe. Finally, multiple critiques produced by decolonial, historicist, and theological views within the field of Islamic studies are shown to be complementary rather than exclusivist.

The Colour of Film-Philosophy

This article draws upon the work of Sylvia Wynter and W.E.B. Du Bois in order to propose that film-philosophy has historically not paid due attention to race. Drawing upon the former’s concept of “the sociogenic principle”, as well as the latter’s theories of “the colour line” and “double-consciousness”, the article argues that modernity has been constructed coterminously with whiteness, as well as a “photographic/cinematographic” logic whereby Blackness is cast into a “negative” realm. That is, while modernity might be white, more specifically it is antiblack. For film-philosophy ethically to evolve, then, it must not just pursue a dewesternising turn to the global, as suggested by various scholars, but it must also reckon with antiblackness and the role that cinema has played in constructing and reaffirming a white (and therefore antiblack) world. By this token, recent engagements with objects and animals similarly do not often consider race as a structuring concept of and for the human, in distinction to which both objects and animals supposedly exist. Indeed, one might even construe the contemporary emphasis on objects and animals among primarily white western scholars as a refusal to consider race with the critical rigour that it merits. This article goes some way towards introducing such critical rigour as developed among scholars in critical race theory, in particular Black Studies, especially Du Bois and Wynter; and it proposes that the application of such work to film will radically alter how we consider the medium. In this way, the article draws out the (white) colour of film-philosophy, and argues for a racially conscious/conscientious film-philosophy that will thus be worthy of the name.

Anti-Muslim tribalism: a new framework for analysing Islamophobia in contemporary times

ABSTRACT One of the leading interpretations of Islamophobia in Europe is anti-Muslim racism. Scholars who conceptualize Islamophobia as a form of racism typically draw on the theoretical framework of cultural racism to contend that Muslims in Europe are discriminated against not only on the basis of religion and culture, but also on the basis of physical features or ancestry. This strand of contention is based on the fact that most Muslims in Europe are non-white immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East and, as a consequence, generally appear phenotypically different from the white majority in European societies. In this article, Ejiofor argues that, even though the theoretical cultural racism framework utilized by some European and other western scholars to analyse Islamophobia in Europe is quite pertinent to some forms of Islamophobia in European or western societies, it does not apprehend the lived experiences of discrimination against Muslims in many non-European societies. Ejiofor contends that the cultural racism framework tends to sidestep the fact that Islamophobia is a global phenomenon that occurs in some non-European societies where colour racism is non-existent, where race―or racial identity―is not a relevant social category, and where discrimination against Muslims hardly has anything to do with whiteness or non-whiteness. What, then, does Islamophobia look like in some non-European contexts where racism―as the term is ordinarily used in Europe to refer to discrimination of peoples based on physical traits or ancestry―does not make sense? Drawing on the Nigerian context, in which discrimination against Muslims reflects ethnoreligious and ethnoregional conflicts arising from the complex political history of the Nigerian state, Ejiofor posits that Islamophobia in some non-European societies is about tribalism, as it involves the grouping of Muslims into a single tribe and associating Muslimness with terrorism despite the absence of racial identity. He proposes the novel framework of anti-Muslim tribalism so as to capture Islamophobia beyond the West.

Sociology, labour and transition in post-Soviet Russia: A view from within

For almost 20 years, since the early 1990s, Professor Simon Clarke led multiple international research projects in Russia, China and Vietnam studying labour relations, enterprise restructuring and household economics under post-socialist transition. Breaking out of post-socialist scholarship’s narrow confines, both social and ideological, he led an exploration of the void opened by former Soviet Union disintegration reconnecting with those who brought the brunt of it. Equally unique among western scholars was his promotion of a vast network of former Soviet Union researchers and activists, later formalised in the Institute for Comparative Research in Labour Relations. Here, for the first time, some of its leading scholars reflect on his legacy, methods and ever-lasting contribution to the advancement of sociology and social activism in Russia. Their accounts convey the radically alternative character of the overall project, returning both achievements and limitations. In substantive terms, the emerging picture confirms the indeterminacy and complexity of Clarke’s original findings: no linear development from ‘the subsumption of labour under capital’ to ‘familiar patterns of class conflict’ has occurred. Instead, growing labour protests follow labour degradation and restructuring, a strong state becoming the arbiter in the stand-off between neoliberalism and workers’ resistance.

Critique of Wang Guoweis Gu Ya Theory and the Establishment of Veneration of Antiquity

Wang Guoweis Gu Ya theory is considered one of the most influential aesthetic theories in modern China but has not been taken seriously in western scholarship. In this theory, Wang Guowei tries to oppose Kant's theory of genius by claiming that everyone should be able to create beauty. Wang Guowei focuses heavily on the Chinese literati instead of the whole population to which Kant refers. I found the Gu Ya theory implausible for either the Chinese literati or the peasants because the two points that Wang Guowei provides, the first form and the markedness, would be considered inadequate to prove his arguments. Besides that, one reason the Gu Ya theory fails to achieve its goal is the ignorance of the veneration of antiquity, which is significant in Chinese aesthetic appreciation. We must find solutions to either solve or refine the Gu Ya theory in order to accelerate the development of Chinese aesthetics. I firstly criticized and corrected the ambiguity of Wang Guoweis the first form and the misunderstanding of the concepts of marked and unmarked in Chinese literature. Then, I established the veneration of antiquity as my aesthetic theory that fits the Chinese literati. In the end, I posted a thought about Wang Guoweis idea of wu ren in his Gu Ya theory because he does not clarify and fails to build a connection with Kants theory.

Forum: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: What Did We Miss?

Abstract This forum focuses on the overlooked areas of the moment surrounding the nature and progression of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It brings together scholars of different disciplines, backgrounds, and locations to provide analyses of the Russian aggression from varying perspectives such as history, law, military studies, politics, and media and communications, to name a few, encouraging the authors to focus on intricacies to deliver a deeper analysis of the invasion. Each author offers a unique take on the analyses of the past and present. The forum has two aims. First, the collection raises the question “What did we miss?” and it aims to highlight the lack of attention by Western scholars to Russian perceptions of Western threats and the concerns of former Soviet countries regarding Russia's aggressive foreign policy. Second, the forum intends to start a conversation on different non-Western perspectives of thinking about the Russian invasion. The forum covers the events of the period from the beginning of the invasion up to July 2022, with some post-revision comments in the introduction and conclusion mentioning the events up to February 2023.

Quranic Arabic: From its Hijazi Origins to its Classical Reading Traditions By Marijn van Putten

Marijn van Putten’s Quranic Arabic is an illuminating and highly original addition to important scholarly articles on the study of Qurʾānic linguistics and the Qurʾānic consonantal text (hereafter, QCT). In seeking to answer the question (p. 1), ‘What is the language of the Quran?’, the author refers to the QCT as found in various early manuscripts. This central feature of his approach, intended to enable the Qurʾān ‘to tell its own linguistic history’ (p. 8), sets it apart from previous scholarship on the language of the Qurʾān. Self-evidently, the issues taken up in the book are such that many of the arguments depend on hypotheses and venture into speculation. Van Putten is properly alert to this and, to his credit, frequently reminds readers of alternative possibilities. After the Introduction, ch. 2 explores the nature of the ʿarabiyya. Van Putten rejects the idea—widespread in Western scholarship—that the Arabic of the Qurʾān is identifiable with what became the standard Classical Arabic. He argues instead that the ʿarabiyya, as described by the grammarians, does not form a single, homogeneous linguistic entity. He attempts to prove this (convincingly, in my opinion) by presenting cases where the grammarians—mainly Sībawayh (d. 180/796) and al-Farrāʾ (d. 207/822), but also al-Mubarrad (d. 285/898) and al-Akhfash (d. 215/830)—describe linguistic features that go beyond what is known in the textbooks of Classical Arabic.