Hasil untuk "Social sciences and state - Asia (Asian studies only)"

Massimiliano Lacertosa

This paper analyses the function of the myriad things (wanwu 萬物) in the Zhuangzi 莊子, arguing that the text’s conception of the “myriad things’ transformation (wanwu zhi hua 萬物之化)” destabilises anthropocentrism and reconfigures the human-nature relationship. Through close analysis of key passages, I elucidate the ways in which the Zhuangzi’s non-hierarchical framing of wanwu subverts materialist paradigms that priv­ilege human agency over the nonhuman world. Central to my thesis is the paradox that the absence of environmental preoccupations in the text enables its radical decentring of anthropocentrism. This aligns with decolonial critiques of the nature/culture binary, shifting ethical responsibility away from preservationist approaches towards refusal of self-harm through unobstructive action (wuwei 無為). Such attunement prevents injury both to the self and the relational continuum of wanwu, fostering adaptation to constant transformation. Consequently, the Zhuangzi offers a pluralistic framework for rethinking human-world relations beyond anthropocentric paradigms. It grounds ethics in partici­patory responsiveness to wanwu’s irreducible plurality, positioning adaptability—rather than domination—as the cornerstone of coexistence.

Sebastijan Pešec

Zgodovina Ladakha še danes ni podrobno raziskana z vidika sodobnega znanstvenega zgodovinopisja, obstaja le nekaj verodostojnih in natančnih študij o zgodovini te dežele, na katerih gradi tudi pričujoči članek. Ta prinaša kronološki pregled poglavitnih dogodkov v politično-religijski zgodovini dežele, začenši z naselitvijo prvih ljudstev, Dardov in Monov, približno v 2. stoletju pr. n. št., nato pa opiše postopno imigracijo tibetanskega prebivalstva, ki sestavlja glavnino etnične strukture ladaškega ljudstva. Do 10. stoletja je o zgodovini dežele znanega zelo malo, saj so pisni in arheološki viri zelo skopi. Ladaško kraljestvo, takrat imenovano Maryul, je bilo ustanovljeno leta 950 in Ladaške kronike, pisane na kraljevem dvoru, so do 15. stoletja skoraj izključni pisni vir za to območje. Od 15. stoletja naprej se pojavljajo tudi drugi viri (tibetanski in islamski ter tudi ladaški), zato zgodovina območja ni zgolj bolj poznana, temveč tudi bolj objektivno predstavljena, saj lahko primerjamo različne poglede na dogodke in deželo iz različnih zavezniških in sovražnih držav.

Seung-hwan Leo Kim

In Pursuit of English presents an incisive aetiology of South Korea’s national obsession with the acquisition of English (“English fever”) and, more broadly, demonstrates the importance of subjectivity—emotions, perceptions, beliefs and the like—in understanding the relationship between language choice and the speaker’s situated environment. Park argues that 1) recent history and policy choices have turned English into an index of wealth, prestige, and good moral character in South Korea; and 2) the resulting subjectivities of language, consisting of such affects as desire, moral responsibility, anxiety, and insecurity, now perpetuate English fever as a neoliberal self-development project. In doing so, Park successfully makes the case for us to examine attitudes toward language-learning as a mechanism born of, and now serving, a particular political-economic and social paradigm.

T. Khattak, Dr. Rana Jimshaid Asghar

This research scrutinizes the challenges faced by Pakistan's law enforcement agencies in effectively countering the escalating threats of terrorism and extremism. It identifies both the manifestations and root causes of these challenges, underscoring the imperative need for a refined legislative framework. This article proposes the enactment of a "National Counter Terrorism Department Act" designed to enhance the nation's control mechanisms, curtail the surge of extremist tendencies, and uphold the rule of law. Drawing from a comparative analysis of various enforcement strategies in Pakistan, this paper suggests that the existing "National Counter Terrorism Authority Act, 2013" requires legislative intervention. While it lays down comprehensive guidelines, its operational efficiency is marred by the absence of a singular unified department, inadequate service structures, and constrained powers. By assimilating insights from the Department of Homeland Security with its mandate vis-à-vis model organizational websites, books, journals, acts of various law enforcement agencies, scholarly articles and newspaper articles, the paper underlines the ineffectiveness of the National Counter Terrorism Authority Act, 2013, in its current form. It has been recommended that the envisioned "National Counter Terrorism Department Act" would not only bolster Pakistan's counterterrorism capabilities, but it will also ensure a standardized, cohesive approach nationwide. References Abrahamsen, R., & Leander, A. (Eds.). (2016). Routledge handbook of private security studies. London: Routledge. Afridi, S. A. (2018). Pakistan Counterinsurgency Doctrine and Practice in Swat (2007-2015) (Doctoral dissertation, University of Peshawar, Peshawar.). Afzal, M. (2021). Terrorism in Pakistan has declined, but the underlying roots of extremism remain. Afzal, S., Iqbal, H., & Inayay, M. (2012). Terrorism and extremism as a non-traditional security threat post 9/11: Implications for Pakistan's security. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(24), 194-203. Ahmed, S. S. (2020). The Role of Pakistan Against Counter Terrorism. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS), 65(1), 66-81. Ahmed, I. The Federal Investigation Agency. Babakheil, M. A., A National CTD? Dawn, February 20th, 2023. Biscop, S., & Whitman, R. G. (Eds.). (2013). The Routledge handbook of European security. London: Routledge. Khan, Z. U. (1986). The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and Its Impact on Pakistan. International Essays I, 1, 121. Burgess, J. P. (Ed.). (2010). Handbook of new security studies. Routledge. Carpenter, W. M., & Wiencek, D. G. (2005). Asian security handbook: Terrorism and the new security environment. Me sharpe. Cavelty, M. D., Fischer, S. C., & Balzacq, T. (2016). ‘Killer Robots' and Preventive Arms Control. In Routledge Handbook of Security Studies (pp. 457-468). Routledge. Government of Pakistan, 1974, Federal Investigation Agency Act, 1974, Act 1974 (VIII of 1975). Government of Pakistan, 2013, National Counter Terrorism Authority Act, 2013, Section 4. Government of Pakistan, 1997, The Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. Homeland Security Act, 2002. Habib, A., & US Army School for Advanced Military Studies Fort Leavenworth United States. (2018). Counter narrative: the missing link in Pakistan's counter-terrorism strategy. US Army School for Advanced Military Studies Fort Leavenworth United States. Hough, P., Malik, S., Moran, A., & Pilbeam, B. (2015). International security studies. Taylor & Francis. Hussain, N. (2021). A National Security Policy for Pakistan. Strategic Thought, 3, 12-24. Imran, M., & Idrees, R. Q. (2020). Anti Terrorism Legal Framework in Pakistan and Challenges before the Criminal Justice System. Pakistan Journal of International Affairs, 3(2). Jackson, R. (Ed.). (2016). Routledge handbook of critical terrorism studies (p. 20). Abingdon: Routledge. Jägerskog, A., Schulz, M., & Swain, A. (Eds.). (2019). Routledge handbook on Middle East security. Routledge. Jawad, A. (2022). An evaluation of Anti-Terrorism laws in Pakistan: Lessons from the past and challenges for the future. Security and Defence Quarterly, 38(2), 16-30. Kamal, M., & Khalid, I. (2015). The Homeland Security Initiatives for Pakistan: A Grand Strategy. South Asian Studies, 30(01), 15-36. Khan, Z. A. (2011). Military operations in FATA and PATA. Strategic Studies, 31, 129-146. Kiran, M. A. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF HOMELAND SECURITY: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN. Mahmood, M. T. (2020). The Role of the Judicial System and Law Enforcement Agencies in Combating Terrorism in Pakistan (Doctoral dissertation, University of Buckingham). Lodhi, M. (2002). Rethinking Security Challenges: A Pakistani Perspective Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United States, Spring 2002. Malik, S. (2018). Security Sector Reforms in Pakistan: Significance, Challenges and Impediments. Strategic Studies, 38(3), 1–21. Masys, A. J. (Ed.). (2022). Handbook of Security Science. Springer Nature. Peoples, C., & Vaughan-Williams, N. (2020). Critical security studies: An introduction. Routledge. Peptan, C. (2019). Terrorism-Security threat in the context of globalization. Analele Universitatii “Constantin Brancusi” din Targu Jiu–Seria Litere si Stiinte Sociale, (01), 126-142. Petzschmann, P. (2010). Pakistan’s police between centralization and devolution. Rumi, R. (2015). Charting Pakistan's internal security policy. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace. Robinson, P., Seib, P., & Frohlich, R. (Eds.). (2016). Routledge handbook of media, conflict and security. Taylor & Francis. Rosand, E., Millar, A., Ipe, J., & Healey, M. (2022). UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and Regional and Subregional Bodies: Strengthening a Critical Partnership. Global Center on Cooperative Security. Seiple, C., Hoover, D., & Otis, P. (Eds.). (2013). The Routledge handbook of religion and security (p. 168). Oxford: Routledge. Shafi, M., & Dinakhel, M. A. (2022). National Security Policy of Pakistan (2022-2026): Introduction and Impact on Political Landscape of Pakistan. Al-Azhār, 8(02), 31-41. Soeters, J., Shields, P. M., & Rietjens, S. J. (Eds.). (2014). Routledge handbook of research methods in military studies. London: Routledge. Sultan, N., Mohamed, N., Bashir, M. A., & Bashir, M. F. (2022). The anti‐money laundering and counter financing of terrorism policy in Pakistan: is it truly combating or just a high‐level desk work bureaucracy?. Journal of Public Affairs, 22(4), e2731. Virk, S. K. (2022). National Internal Security Policy: An Assessment. Journal of Public Policy Practitioners, 1(2), 49-78. Ullah, F., Ibrar, M., & Shaikh, S. (2019). STRATEGIES FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT BODIES TO COMBAT TERRORISM IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN. New Horizons (1992-4399), 13(2). Williams, J. (2021). Locating LAWS: Lethal Autonomous Weapons, Epistemic Space, and “Meaningful Human” Control. Journal of Global Security Studies, 6(4), ogab015.

Mohammadreza Samadi, S. Momtazi

Due to the widespread use of social media, people are exposed to fake news and misinformation. Spreading fake news has adverse effects on both the general public and governments. This issue motivated researchers to utilize advanced natural language processing concepts to detect such misinformation in social media. Despite the recent research studies that only focused on semantic features extracted by deep contextualized text representation models, we aim to show that content-based feature engineering can enhance the semantic models in a complex task like fake news detection. These features can provide valuable information from different aspects of input texts and assist our neural classifier in detecting fake and real news more accurately than using semantic features. To substantiate the effectiveness of feature engineering besides semantic features, we proposed a deep neural architecture in which three parallel convolutional neural network (CNN) layers extract semantic features from contextual representation vectors. Then, semantic and content-based features are fed to a fully connected layer. We evaluated our model on an English dataset about the COVID-19 pandemic and a domain-independent Persian fake news dataset (TAJ). Our experiments on the English COVID-19 dataset show 4.16% and 4.02% improvement in accuracy and f1-score, respectively, compared to the baseline model, which does not benefit from the content-based features. We also achieved 2.01% and 0.69% improvement in accuracy and f1-score, respectively, compared to the state-of-the-art results reported by Shifath et al. (A transformer based approach for fighting covid-19 fake news, arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.12027 , 2021). Our model outperformed the baseline on the TAJ dataset by improving accuracy and f1-score metrics by 1.89% and 1.74%, respectively. The model also shows 2.13% and 1.6% improvement in accuracy and f1-score, respectively, compared to the state-of-the-art model proposed by Samadi et al. (ACM Trans Asian Low-Resour Lang Inf Process, https://doi.org/10.1145/3472620 , 2021).

Renata Riolo, Riccardo De Rosa, I. Simonetta et al.

Human nutrition is a relatively new science based on biochemistry and the effects of food constituents. Ancient medicine considered many foods as remedies for physical performance or the treatment of diseases and, since ancient times, especially Greek, Asian and pre-Christian cultures similarly thought that they had beneficial effects on health, while others believed some foods were capable of causing illness. Hippocrates described the food as a form of medicine and stated that a balanced diet could help individuals stay healthy. Understanding molecular nutrition, the interaction between nutrients and DNA, and obtaining specific biomarkers could help formulate a diet in which food is not only a food but also a drug. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the role of the Mediterranean diet and olive oil on cardiovascular risk and to identify their influence from the genetic and epigenetic point of view to understand their possible protective effects.

V. Sharma

The science of nutrition focuses primarily on how nutrients contribute to human growth, development, and maintenance. Nutrition is the study of the relationship between diet and health. The goal of healthy nutrition is to keep people in a nutritional state that promotes growth and optimum health. The six to twelve year old school going is a vital time for children's physical and intellectual development. The socioeconomic standing of families, community social well-being, community access to quality healthcare, and environmental influence are all significant determinants of children's health. Malnutrition can be prevented using a variety of strategies if it is seen as a problem in human ecology. This study's goal was to assess the nutritional status of school going children in Nepalgunj, Banke, whose mothers were employed or unemployed and attended selected schools. The study used a descriptive comparative research approach, and 120 students from Nepalgunj, Banke were chosen using stratified random selection. A systematic questionnaire that was self-developed was used to gather the data. The study's findings indicated that children with underweight (51.6%) were more common among children of employed moms than of jobless mothers (20%). However, children of unemployed moms (43.3%) had a higher prevalence of normal weight children than did children of employed mothers (25%). The body mass index (BMI) of the children was found to be correlated with the type of school and maternal job level, with P-values of <0.001 and <0.02 respectively. Children's nutritional status is a critical component of their growth and development. According to this study, children of employed moms were less likely to be underweight, whereas those of jobless mothers were typically sized. Children's BMI was correlated with the work position of the mother and various school kinds, including public and private schools. When developing treatments to improve children's nutritional status, these elements should be taken into account. References Abdel Wahed, W. Y., Hassan, S. K., & Eldessouki, R. (2017). Malnutrition and Its Associated Factors among Rural School Children in Fayoum Governorate, Egypt. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/4783791 Aryal, M. (2016). Malnutrition in Nepal- an overview. Retrieved from http://umeshg.com.np/malnutrition-in-nepal. Asif, M. (2021). Contingent Effect of Conflict Management towards Psychological Capital and Employees’ Engagement in Financial Sector of Islamabad [PhD Dissertation, Preston University, Kohat, Islamabad Campus.]. Islamabad. Asif, M., Khan, A., & Pasha, M. A. (2019). Psychological Capital of Employees’ Engagement: Moderating Impact of Conflict Management in the Financial Sector of Pakistan. Global Social Sciences Review, IV(III), 160-172. Asser, A. J., & Mohammed, H. J. (2020). Nutritional status of primary school children. Journal of Institute of Medicine Nepal, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.3750/v20/i1/2020/mlu/194732 Best, C., Neufingerl, N., van Geel, L., van den Briel, T., & Osendarp, S. (2010). The Nutritional Status of School-Aged Children: Why Should We Care? Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 31(3), 400–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/156482651003100303 Boma, G. O., Anthony, I. P., George, M. D., Abaiola, E., Andrew, F., Daniel, M. D., Tarilanyo, T. R., & Mefubara, K. (2014). Nutritional Status of Children in Rural setting. IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences, 13(1), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.9790/0853-13164147 Burgess, A. (2016). Undernutrition in Adults and Children: causes, consequences and what we can do. 18–22. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ssmj/article/view/132347 C, J. M., Vipul, M., Joshi, H. S., & Professor, A. (2011). Determinants of Nutritional Status of School Children Determinants of Nutritional Status of School Children -A Cross Sectional Study in the Western Region of Nepal. Njirm, 2(1), 2230–9969. Degarege, D., Degarege, A., & Animut, A. (2015). Undernutrition and associated risk factors among school age children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. BMC Public Health, 15(1), 375. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1714-5 El-Sabely, A. A., Tork, H. M., & Hussien, Y. E. (2013). Comparative study of nutritional status and dietary habits of children from public and private primary schools in Zagazig City, Egypt. IOSR J Nurs Heal Sci, 3(1), 47-52. Eze, J. N., Oguonu, T., Ojinnaka, N. C., & Ibe, B. C. (2017). Physical growth and nutritional status assessment of school children in Enugu, Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice, 20(1), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.4103/1119-3077.180067 Galgamuwa, L. S., Iddawela, D., Dharmaratne, S. D., & Galgamuwa, G. L. S. (2017). Nutritional status and correlated socio-economic factors among preschool and school children in plantation communities, Sri Lanka. BMC Public Health, 17(1), 377. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4311-y Joshi, P. (2012). Malnutrition in Children: A Serious Public Health Issue in Nepal. Health Prospect, 11, 61–62. https://doi.org/10.3126/hprospect.v11i0.7439 Karak, P., Maiti, R., Das, P., & Karmakar, A. (2018). Assessment of nutritional status of School Children in rural and urban areas of Bankura, West bengal. The Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 16(3), 113–152. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02823216 M, W., B, A., ZB, B., & F, G. (2017). Comparative Study on Nutritional Status of under Five Children with Employment Status of Mothers in Adama Town, Central Ethiopia. Maternal and Pediatric Nutrition, 03(01), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4172/24721182.1000117 Maskey, M., Sharma Annavarapu, L., & Karmacharya, P. (2020). Nutritional assessment of school children and adolescents: Pokhara city in Western Nepal. Journal of Patan Academy of Health Sciences, 7(2), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.3126/jpahs.v7i2.31115 Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP). (2016). Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR257/FR257%5B13April2012%5D.pdf Mwaniki, E. W., & Makokha, A. N. (2013). Nutrition status and associated factors among children in public primary schools in Dagoretti, Nairobi, Kenya. African health sciences, 13(1), 38-46. Park, K. (2015). A text book of preventive and social medicine. Janot. Pramod Singh, G. C., Nair, M., Grubesic, R. B., & Connell, F. A. (2009). Factors Associated With Underweight and Stunting Among Children in Rural Terai of Eastern Nepal. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 21(2), 144–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539509332063 Sathiadas, G., Annieston, A., Arunath, V., Kasthuri, T., & Wickramasinghe, V. P. (2020). Nutritional status of school children living in Northern part of Sri Lanka. 4–11. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-32024/v1 Shrestha, A., Bhusal, C. K., Shrestha, B., & Bhattarai, K. D. (2020). Nutritional Status of Children and Its Associated Factors in Selected Earthquake-Affected VDCs of Gorkha District, Nepal. International Journal of Pediatrics, 2020, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5849548 Shahid, N., Asif, M., & Pasha, D. A. (2022). Effect of Internet Addiction on School Going Children. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 1(1), 13–55. https://doi.org/10.1022/ijss.v1i1.3 Tim, R., Risk, D., Isbn, C., Pdf, T., Press, N. A., Press, N. A., Academy, N., Academy, N., & Press, N. A. (1990). Diet and health: implications for reducing chronic disease risk. In Choice Reviews Online, 27(06). https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.27-3332 Todhunter, E. N. (1970). School feeding from a nutritionist's point of view. American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health, 60(12), 2302-2306. Udash, P. (2017). Nutritional status of 5 to 10 years children of namje , vedetar vdc of dhankuta district by pranaya udash Department of Nutrition and Dietetics nutritional status of 5 to 10 years children of namje , vedetar vdc of dhankuta district Department of Nutritio. Umeokonkwo, A. A., Ibekwe, M. U., Umeokonkwo, C. D., Okike, C. O., Ezeanosike, O. B., & Ibe, B. C. (2020). Nutritional status of school age children in Abakaliki metropolis, Ebonyi State, Nigeria. BMC Pediatrics, 20(1), 114. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887020-1994-5 UNICEF and World Bank. (2014). Small Area Estimation of Food Insecurity and Undernourishment in Neal. https://www.wfp.org/publications/nepal-small-areaestimation-food-insecurity-and-undernutrition-december-2014 WFP. (2018). Eswatini | World Food Programme. https://www.wfp.org/nutrition WHO. (2020). Micronutrients. https://www.who.int/health-topics/micronutrients#tab=tab_1

H. Coelho, A. Price, Fraizer Kiff et al.

Mental health problems are common among children and young people in the UK. Some young people from ethnic minority backgrounds experience mental health problems in different ways from those from non-ethnic minority backgrounds. Furthermore, those from ethnic minority backgrounds often experience greater difficulties in accessing mental health support and variable levels of engagement with services, and may prefer different support to their white British peers. To describe the nature and scope of qualitative research about the experiences of children and young people from ethnic minority backgrounds in seeking or obtaining care or support for mental health problems. We searched seven bibliographic databases (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, PsycInfo®, Health Management Information Consortium, Social Policy and Practice, and Web of Science) using relevant terms on 23 June 2021. The scoping review included qualitative research about young people’s experiences of seeking or engaging with services or support for mental health problems. Included studies were published from 2012 onwards, were from the UK, were about those aged 10–24 years and were focused on those from ethnic minority backgrounds (i.e. not white British). Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment (with ‘Wallace’ criteria) were conducted by two reviewers. We provide a descriptive summary of the aims, scope, sample, methods and quality of the included studies, and a selected presentation of authors’ findings (i.e. no formal synthesis). From 5335 unique search records, we included 26 papers or reports describing 22 diverse qualitative studies. Most of the studies were well conducted and clearly described. There were studies of refugees/asylum seekers (n = 5), university students (n = 4) and studies among young people experiencing particular mental health problems (n = 14) (some studies appear in multiple categories): schizophrenia or psychosis (n = 3), eating disorders (n = 3), post-traumatic stress disorder (n = 3, in asylum seekers), substance misuse (n = 2), self-harm (n = 2) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (n = 1). There were also three studies of ethnic minority young people who were receiving particular treatments (cognitive–behavioural therapy, multisystemic therapy for families and a culturally adapted family-based talking therapy). Most studies had been conducted with young people or their parents from a range of different ethnic backgrounds. However, nine studies were conducted with particular ethnic groups: asylum seekers from Afghanistan (n = 2), and black and South Asian (n = 2), black African and black Caribbean (n = 2), South Asian (n = 1), Pakistani or Bangladeshi (n = 1) and Orthodox Jewish (n = 1) people. The studies suggested a range of factors that influence care-seeking and access to mental health care, in terms of the beliefs and knowledge of young people and their parents, the design and promotion of services, and the characteristics of care professionals. Poor access was attributed to a lack of understanding of mental health problems, lack of information about services, lack of trust in care professionals, social stigma and cultural expectations about mental resilience. As this was a rapid scoping review, there was only a basic synthesis of the research findings. Future research about young people from ethnic minorities could cover a wider range of ethnic minorities, sample and analyse experiences from particular ethnic minorities separately, cover those accessing different services for different needs, and adopt multiple perspectives (e.g. service user, carer, clinician, service management). This study is registered as https://osf.io/wa7bf/. This project was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery programme and will be published in full in Health and Social Care Delivery; Vol. 10, No. 22. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

Shuangmei Zhang, Sijia Cheng, Zhaoxu Zhang et al.

Xing Li

In the context that the West, led by the United States, is still pursuing global hegemony and China and Russia are jointly committed to the rejuvenation of the nation state, China-Russia relations are not only strategic, special, and complementary, but also supporting each other’s status as a great power. The head of state diplomacy is the driving force for the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between the two countries in the new era. China-Russia relations are a model of major-country relations and a new type of international relations which are at their best in the history of the two countries. As two major countries in Europe and Asia, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) will work together to make up for the lack of economic and social links between the two countries. This cooperation will enhance great developmental prospects for mutual benefit and common development. At the same time, China-Russia relations are also complicated and sensitive. How to overcome the “bottleneck” in China-Russia relations, strengthen political mutual trust and cultural exchanges, and further promote China-Russia all-round cooperation and stable development of bilateral relations within the framework of the “One Belt and One Union” is a research project with great practical significance and theoretical value.

LAM Peng Er

Notwithstanding their asymmetry in size and power, Singapore and the People’s Republic of China enjoy a “special relationship” based on cultural affinity and close economic interdependency. The city-state was also a model of development for its giant neighbor after the latter abandoned Maoist autarchy and embarked on the road of reform. But their ties are also awkward because Singapore is strategically close to the US superpower which views a rising and rivaling China with suspicion. Singapore’s relations with Beijing may become even more awkward during an uncertain power transition in East Asia amid the bitter Sino-US decoupling over trade, technology, finance and human talent.

Antonio Maldonado Correa, S.J

El jesuita andaluz Fernando García Gutiérrez (1928-2108), profesor, escritor, coleccionista e historiador del arte es, sin duda, uno de los grandes pioneros en el estudio de la historia del arte japonés en España. Sus contribuciones a la investigación y a la difusión de las manifestaciones artísticas niponas en nuestro país han sido muy sobresalientes. El libro, publicado por la Asociación Hasekura de Coria del Río (Sevilla) y redactado por la Dra. Elena Barlés Báguena (Universidad de Zaragoza), nos ofrece una biografía de este gran estudioso; una amplia reseña de su obra literaria y académica (libros, artículos, conferencias y exposiciones) y de la colección de arte de Asia Oriental que atesoró (hoy en la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría -Sevilla-); además de una selección de fotografías de su álbum personal. La obra se ha basado en los testimonios personales del Padre Fernando, en diferentes entrevistas realizadas por la autora a muchos de sus familiares y amigos, en fuentes de hemeroteca y en una abundante bibliografía. El libro incluye un extenso resumen en japonés

Jonah C. Balba, Manuel E. Caingcoy

Olusolami Okunlola, J. Odukoya, A. Gesinde

Abstract The burden of sexual abuse remains a global reality and it is known to affect adolescents’ psycho-social well-being. The current study aimed at determining the unanimity findings on the relationship between sexual abuse and self-esteem among adolescents as well as the concomitant determinants of self-esteem among sexually abused adolescents. To achieve this, a systematic search of PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane, African Journals Online (AJOL) and Google Scholar was conducted to identify studies that focused on the outcomes of sexual abuse on the self-esteem of adolescents. Based on this, a simple synthesis of basic findings of the selected studies was conducted. A total of 7,278 studies were identified out of which only eight studies from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America met the selection criteria. With three research questions guiding the study, findings reveal that sexual abuse is prevalent among the study participants. It also revealed an inverse relationship between sexual abuse and self-esteem among he adolescents. Furthermore, three categories of co-determinants of self-esteem among sexually abused adolescents were observed namely socio-demographic determinants; parental and family determinants as well as nature of abuse. The overriding deduction from these studies is that sexual abuse impacts negatively on the self-esteem of adolescents. These findings have implications for Sustainable Development Goals. Since this study has established that sexual abuse impacts negatively on the self-esteem of adolescents, drivers of SGD 3 should, among other things, intensify campaigns against adolescents’ sexual abuse and make psychological intervention by counselling psychologists, available to victims.

Anne Hardgrove

Abstract This article examines pedagogical expectations and learning outcomes for an active learning and writing assignment given to University of Texas San Antonio history students studying the region of South Asia, defined as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Nepal. In order to enhance student learning, I ask students to experience some aspect of South Asian culture that they encounter, and draw connections between their experience and material discussed in class. Despite living in the hybrid “Tex-Mex” culture of the U.S.-Mexico border, and a region with a strong military presence with overseas experiences, the majority of students find that venturing into South Asian cuisine, conversations with people of South Asian heritage, films, visits to religious institutions asks them to leave their comfort zone. Even so-called “heritage” students, with personal and family connections to the Indian subcontinent, find that their own life experiences are confined to a particular religious or national tradition, and find that they too can be stretched by new cultural contexts. In the social sciences, particularly the field of communications, the term “intercultural competency” is often used to convey the skills of self-awareness and communication savvy gained by such exercises. People who can learn to engage other cultures easily, have an advantage in navigating a globalized world. By utilizing this engaged, informed sense of relationship-building and cultural appreciation to the humanities, particularly in the field of history, I hope to enrich students’ learning of historical events and traditions, while at the same time giving them opportunities to build confidence and broader worldviews.

Paul D'Ambrosio

In this paper I will delve into Li Zehou’s idea that “harmony is higher than justice (hexie gaoyu zhengyi 和諧高於正義)”. Firstly, I will situate this proposal within the context of the contemporary debate on harmony and justice in Western and Chinese traditions. The position Li holds generally belongs to those who see justice and harmony as representative of a West-East difference. However, it can be developed to promote a more nuanced understanding. After giving due consideration, brief though it must be, to his argument, I will sketch some of the other major views on the relationship between harmony and justice, providing a critique from Li’s perspective. In the final section I seek to expand on Li’s theory by outlining a more collaborative path for thinking about harmony and justice.

Pinelopi Vergou

Global challenges and recent changes in conflict areas in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are reasons for the contemporary forced migration into European countries, which have become places of destination or transit posts for a great number of refugees. Cities have become the focus of the socio-spatial debate, as the main units for receiving refugees, either in state camps or in social housing in city centres. In this article, the focus is on the social-spatial configuration of refugee accommodation in local communities and the way these formations generate urban and school segregation. We argue that the placement of urban refugees in large, camp-like structures with low housing standards, mainly in areas outside cities or in rural areas, provides ground not only for social exclusion and ‘territorial stigmatisation’ but also for de facto school segregation. Furthermore, the attempts to house refugees in small cities, through United Nations and NGO-supplied houses, may also raise concerns about the way dispersal policies are implemented, with the distribution of refugee children in specific schools as a result of territorial social-spatial segregation. In both cases, the school segregation of refugees is connected not only with the implications of immigration and education policies but also with the social practices of local communities and the social-spatial characteristics that determine school education. The empirical material of this study is based on information on the socio-economic profiles of neighbourhoods at the census tract level and on qualitative research, through in-depth semi-structured interviews in two different cities in Greece.

Rusadi Kantaprawira, Arry Bainus, Indra Kusumawardhana

The vibrant bilateral relations between Indonesia-Vietnam has been tested by the Sink the Vessels policy, a robust measure executed by Indonesia to tackle rampant illegal fishing that encroach Indonesian waters. The policy has caused in the demolition of, among else, Vietnamese fishing vessels; and has also led to near-clash and incidents at sea. Despite these, both countries bilateral relations were far from hostile condition, and uphold their neighbourly relations to manage the illegal fishing problem. How Could Indonesia’s foreign policy action did not further exacerbate Indonesia-Vietnam relations post “Sink the Vessels” policy? To tackle our question, this article probes to describe the complex systems that interwoven Indonesia and Vietnam during the rising tension. We argue that the complex systems encapsulated Indonesia – Vietnam relations post “Sink the Vessels” policy consist of symbol system, interest system, and role system that maintain their friendly bilateral relations, even in the turbulence ocean. This article exposes that Indonesia-Vietnam responds to tackle the problem stems primarily from the linkage between the three systems to escape the security dilemma.

Masako Endo

Soviet “informal empire” finally led to the close of the Soviet–Xinjiang border and the “Three District Rebellion” against Han ethno-cultural domination in the region. The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, however, did not lead to the immediate end of the Soviet “informal empire” in Xinjiang. Soviet capital and technicians were still badly needed by the Chinese Communists. According to Kinzley, the nonferrous metal operation shipped everything it produced to the Soviet Union in the early 1950s to repay Soviet loans and technical assistance. Furthermore, Kinzley suggests that the narrative of Xinjiang since 1949 has focused on the Production and Construction Corps, while overlooking the role of capital investments and industrial priorities (p. 152). Petroleum and nonferrous minerals have become the twin poles of resource extraction in Xinjiang. Based on the “layers” laid by the Russian and later Soviet geologists and planners, the author argues that sites such as Dushanzi have become the nodes of state power in Xinjiang, while the Production and Construction Corps have played only a supporting role. Indeed, these industrial sites deserve more attention from scholars. In addition to the comparison of state capital investments, the author’s argument would benefit from such details as the demographic changes and administrative relations to substantiate this part of his analysis. In the conclusion, Kinzley incisively points out the connection between the economic inequalities in Xinjiang today and the spatial pattern of infrastructure shaped throughout history. The large scale state-sponsored inflow of Han migrants to those industrial and urban centers further complicated the economic disparity with ethnic tensions. There is no doubt that this solid study has successfully unveiled the historical “layers,” a geographic pattern of social and economic inequalities in Xinjiang. Yet this spatial inequality is not unique. We can see it in other parts of the world as well. Regardless of historical contingency or necessity, modern industrial systems and political forces together have shaped the world into a pattern of centers and peripheries. The archival sources used in this work are impressive. These include archives in Beijing, Xinjiang, Moscow, and Taiwan. In addition to the voices of state leaders, local officials, industrial planners, and geologists, we are eager to hear the voices of thousands of Uyghur and Kazakh laborers, who, as Kinzley admits, are unrepresented in official archives. These archives better represent the voices of the Han Chinese people who migrated to Xinjiang to work on these mineral mines and oil fields. I believe the author would agree that the material dimension should not be restricted to the elites. It is also related to the daily life of the masses, and their voices could provide inspiration and even solutions to the socioeconomic challenges in Xinjiang. In the end, considering the unsustainability of mineral resources and petroleum, the industrial towns in northern Xinjiang may face resource depletion and population outflow in the near future. Then a new question would emerge: will the withering of the historical “layers” foster an opportunity or another crisis for the Chinese state and Xinjiang?