Hong Kong-born British writer Timothy Mo’s novel An Insular Possession (1986) focuses on the First Opium War (1839–1842) and critically examines global inequalities. This article explores cosmopolitanism as a potential framework for mitigating cross-cultural conflicts. Instead of embracing cosmopolitanism as an inherently positive vision, the novel critiques two cosmopolitan worldviews—British colonialism and the Chinese Tianxia concept—and reveals the potential complicity of cosmopolitanism in consolidating hierarchical world orders. Through the protagonist Gideon Chase, an American expatriate engaged in studying Chinese language and culture, Mo envisions a de-colonial cosmopolitan vision that seeks to transcend the center/margin dynamic and fosters more equitable cross-cultural interactions. Gideon’s ultimate failure to alleviate Sino–British tensions prompts reflections on global justice and underscores the urgent need to establish a cosmopolitan world order marked by peace, mutual respect and tolerance of difference.
Olga Kolotouchkina, Mónica Díaz-Bustamante Ventisca, Sonia Carcelén-García
et al.
Abstract Born-sustainable fashion brands are gaining increasing visibility within the fashion industry due to their strong commitment to climate neutrality, innovative business models based on recycled and upcycled materials, and the development of circular services that extend garment performance and durability. Equally central to their purpose is raising global awareness of critical environmental challenges. Social media platforms have become key arenas for these brands to showcase sustainability performance while encouraging more responsible consumer behaviors. Building on scholarship in brand activism, circular innovation, and sustainability communication, this study undertakes an exploratory analysis of sustainability communication and environmental activism on Instagram. The research focuses on 7 fashion brands certified as B-Corps for their outstanding commitment to sustainability and is based on a content analysis of 1754 visual and textual posts. Findings underscore the need for sustainability-driven fashion brands to avoid ambiguity and inconsistency in their digital communication strategies. They further highlight the importance of integrating scientific evidence to demonstrate how sustainability is concretely implemented across manufacturing and distribution. Finally, the study emphasizes the role of internal stakeholders in fostering consumer engagement with sustainable mindsets and in amplifying global awareness of critical environmental and societal challenges.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social Sciences
Abstract This bibliometric analysis systematically evaluates scholarly research on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) from 2000 to 2025, based on 429 peer-reviewed documents indexed in the Scopus database. Employing bibliometric techniques such as keyword frequency analysis, trend topic evaluation, co-occurrence network mapping, thematic mapping, and thematic evolution, the study identifies dominant themes, emerging trends, and the intellectual structure of GRC research. Key findings highlight a consistent academic focus on corporate governance, risk management, compliance, internal controls, and corporate social responsibility. The study also reveals significant shifts towards sustainability and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, reflecting the interdisciplinary expansion of GRC in response to global challenges. To consolidate fragmented insights, the study proposes an integrative conceptual framework that synthesizes thematic clusters into a coherent structure, offering guidance for future research directions. Beyond academic contributions, the findings provide practical implications for policymakers, managers, and compliance professionals by underscoring the need for adaptive and comprehensive governance frameworks capable of addressing evolving risks and organizational complexities.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social Sciences
Melanie Pius Dsouza, Ankitha Shetty, Sara Ellen D’Souza
et al.
The consumption of lo-fi music as a wellness and productivity-inducing product has become increasingly popular among young consumers in recent years. This pioneering article explores emerging evidence on lo-fi music consumption for young consumer wellness, using the positive design framework as a lens, and envisions an extensive future research agenda. Following a systematic approach to reviewing the literature, modeled on scoping review methodology, a thematic analysis of the literature is conducted, and theories from multiple disciplines support arguments. Key research gaps and current trends are identified, and a curated definition of the “lofi product” is provided. The study enhances the positive design framework of Desmet and Pohlmeyer with significant contributions from the themes generated, providing product strategists with a framework to design products that optimize young consumers’ wellness. The findings reveal that consumption of the “lofi product” may intensify positive affect, accelerate goal attainment, and improve health and performance while fostering the development of character strengths in young consumers. Intentionally designing products for young consumers using the proposed framework may also result in similar wellness outcomes. This study would empower marketers to leverage the lofi product effectively in their marketing strategies. Consultation with industry experts informs the future research directions proposed. This study calls out a pressing need for robust scientific investigation and academic discussion.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social Sciences
Abstract This study aims to examine the impact of financial inclusion on environmental pollution in developing countries, thereby addressing whether financial inclusion contributes to environmental improvement or exacerbates pollution. Based on a panel dataset of 62 developing countries from 2005 to 2022, the study employs the system Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) estimator to address endogeneity issues and ensure the robustness of the results. The empirical findings reveal a nonlinear relationship between financial inclusion and environmental pollution, with a threshold identified at 0.331. Specifically, expansion tends to increase pollution at lower levels of financial inclusion; however, once financial inclusion surpasses the threshold, its impact becomes positive, helping to improve environmental quality. Furthermore, the study highlights the moderating role of national characteristics, such as income level and participation in the Paris Agreement. In upper-middle-income countries and those that have signed the Paris Agreement, financial inclusion is found to have a positive influence on environmental outcomes. In contrast, financial inclusion tends to aggravate pollution in lower-income countries or those not party to the Paris Agreement. These findings enhance the academic understanding of the finance-environment nexus and provide valuable empirical evidence to support the design of sustainable and environmentally friendly financial inclusion policies.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social Sciences
<p>The paper raises the question of the possibility of creating a general psychological field of research. The condition for the beginning of such research is a sufficiently complete general model of psychological phe­nomena. The assumption is made that the work of identifying suitable psychological universals has already been done as a part of cultural-historical psychology. We summarised the investigations, starting with L.S. Vygotsky’s idea of a psychological “unit”. With the help of some modern theories, the assumption is substantiated that joint meaning field is the essence of the human in man. The history of the “integral unit of the human lifeworld” construction in the F.E. Vasilyuk’s school and its transformation into a scheme of jointness is described. By analysing F.E. Vasilyuk's notion of “experiencing”, the activity-dialogical model of jointness is extrapolated and filled with “meaning”. This model is proposed as a suitable tool for generalis­ing psychological knowledge. An assumption is made about resonance as a fundamental mechanism of joint­ness formation. In this paper we describe the properties of the prism of jointness and question its sufficiency for the beginning of general psychological research.</p>
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
Following the pandemic, there has been a surge in interest in natural tourism as a means to attract travelers. Minggirsari Village, since 2019, has been actively harnessing its natural resources to entice tourists and has emerged as a trailblazing model village in Blitar Regency, successfully preserving and leveraging its natural splendors for tourism. This study endeavors to delineate Minggirsari's marketing communication strategy in promoting its natural destinations, employing the Marketing Communication Mix model. The qualitative case study methodology was employed, involving on-site observations, interviews with tourism managers, and activity documentation to gather and subsequently analyze data, following the Miles and Hubbermen theory's stages of data collection, processing, presentation, and conclusion drawing. Minggirsari Village's Nature Tourism employs a diverse marketing communications mix encompassing personal sales, advertising, promotions, and public relations to augment tourist footfall, encapsulated by the rallying cry "Ayo Dolan Nang Minggirsari" ("Let's Play in Minggirsari"). The integration of natural tourism with Minggirsari's creative economic potential, epitomized by the #ayodolankeminggirsari movement, demonstrates effective management of human resources, promotions, and auxiliary tourism facilities. Future research avenues could focus on gauging the responses of visitors to Minggirsari Village's natural tourism offerings, thereby enriching our understanding of its impact and efficacy.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social sciences (General)
Abstract In social movement scholarship, a varied array of concepts is used to describe different counterhegemonic social spaces (squats, urban gardens, civil/neighbourhood organizations, etc.), such as ‘autonomous spaces’, ‘spaces of hope’, ‘free (social) spaces’, ‘temporary nodes of resistance to capitalism’ (hereafter, TNRCs), ‘contested spaces’ or ‘social centres’. To link this variety of physical counter-spaces in a conceptual framework, a socioecosystemic approach based on the process of ecological nucleation is suggested. Thus, social nucleation refers to the process of the creation, maintenance, and evolution of spaces—physical or not—that modify their surrounding socioenvironmental conditions, facilitating the recovery of or fostering the functions of socioecosystems based on the existence of interactions. Social nucleation facilitates the emergence and development of a multiplicity of places (social nuclei) created by people with the objective of gathering and developing different activities. Social nucleation could add a holistic point of view to the discussion of the most common terms used in this field, acting as an umbrella concept for this set of different concepts. This can help us thinking about counterhegemonic spaces as a part of the whole socioecosystem and it is helpful in three ways. First, these related concepts can be united into a wider idea. Second, focusing on the common socioecological functions of these places could facilitate their classification despite their differences. These shared socioecological functions could also be used as a methodological tool to analyse these spaces within the dynamics of a social movement. Moreover, highlighting the common functions that these spaces share can help to visualize their significance for developing counterhegemonic alternatives, identities, and networks. Finally, the social nucleation process and socioecological functions can help us revealing the importance of activist networks for creating and maintaining these places.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social Sciences
Shiori Ishida, Hiromi Okuno, Hisato Igarashi
et al.
Abstract Many parents carry exceptional burdens in childcare, especially while raising children with developmental disabilities (DD). Japanese local governments provide considerable support to mothers and their families, which indicates that such services are in high demand. However, similar assistance for fathers in the context of children with DD may be lacking. This study evaluated the social support status of fathers raising children with DD towards considering increased paternal support. Multiple-choice questionnaires on support for information (6 items), emotion (7 items), evaluation (3 items), and daily living (3 items) were completed by Japanese fathers (n = 85) and mothers (n = 101) of children with DD attending rehabilitation facilities. Regarding information support, fathers answered “spouse” as the main provider for all items, which differed significantly from mothers. For emotional support, fathers significantly more frequently received assistance from their workplace and spouse. Daily living support was also significantly more predominant for fathers in the workplace. Evaluation support sources were comparable between the respondent groups, with “spouse” being most frequently answered by fathers. These findings indicate a deficiency in external resources for fathers and support a need to consider increasing non-spouse resources and social support for fathers in raising children with DD.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social Sciences
Abstract Concepts of sustainability touch every aspect of scholarly work and are particularly urgent in thinking about those practices that depend on digital technology. The costs of digital scholarship are frequently posed in terms of human labor and rights abuses, ecological and environmental damage, carbon footprints, waste of resources associated with obsolescence, and other issues that affect every stage of the lifecycle of production. But sustainability also needs to be understood as an epistemic concept embedded in complex systems, not merely as a set of problems to be solved through instrumental means applied to operational logistics. This article addresses mechanistic approaches to sustainability, while suggesting that the complexity of the concept of sustainability requires the humanistic methods and ethical principles to be engaged in decisions about future practices in pedagogy, research, and institutional sites.
The Romanian regime of wartime leader Ion Antonescu concentrated the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovyna in transit camps and ghettos, and then deported them to the Romanian-administered territory between the Dnister and Buh rivers, in southwestern Ukraine. Of approximately 160,000 Romanian Jews deported to “Transnistria,” only 50,000 survived the ordeal. The Romanians, with local Volksdeutsch and Ukrainian collaborators, also massacred and were otherwise responsible for the death of approximately 150,000 local Ukrainian Jews, including the large Jewish community of Odesa. While not comparable to the Jews in number, deported Romanian Roma and local Roma were also subjected to physical brutality, forced labour, and incarceration.
Famine and starvation did not cause all Jewish and Roma deaths in Bessarabia and Transnistria. Mass executions exacted a huge toll. So did exposure to the elements, exhaustion, and typhus. Still, while there was no famine in the region, starvation was a permanent presence. Romanian authorities controlled the food supply and denied it to their targeted victims. This article describes the steps taken by Romanian occupation authorities to isolate Jews and Roma; to limit the flow of food supplies to them; to prevent them from accessing food in local markets; and to prevent help that might have been offered by those local civilians who took pity on the starving victims. Official documentation and testimonies of both officials and survivors provide a vivid picture of the consequences. Specific cases reveal factors that made the situation in one locality better or worse than that in another, or that caused a situation to improve or deteriorate. Variations notwithstanding, however, all sources lead to the conclusion that Romania’s goal was to eliminate the Jews and reduce the Roma population. This made starvation, the use of “food as a weapon,” an acceptable element of state policy.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social sciences (General)
Detective fiction is known as a genre that is concerned with revealing truths, both in the fictional world of the text as well as in the society after which it is patterned. The current socio-political environment, however, has been described as an era of post-truth politics and political propaganda, in which truth is more often determined by the relative strength of its representation. While some contemporary crime novels continue to propagate a reassuring message of truth, select Austrian narratives reflect this new so-called post-truth world. Bringing together theories of detective fiction and post-truth discourse, this article demonstrates how Eva Rossmann’s 2017 crime novel Patrioten (Patriots) adapts the themes and structures of traditional detective narratives to expose a society in which certainty is determined less by objective facts than by their construction in the media and socio-political discourse. The analysis concludes that the novel’s thematic and formal innovations help to redefine the socio-critical potential of contemporary detective fiction by showing the imminent dangers of an unregulated post-truth society.
This interview with Kathleen Fitzpatrick is the second installment in the new interview series of Open Access in Media Studies—in which we ask researchers and librarians about their work in, and thinking about, open access in media studies. Fitzpatrick hardly needs an introduction, given her seminal role in a variety of open access and scholarly communication projects. Last year she joined Michigan State as Director of Digital Humanities and Professor of English. Before, she served as Director of Scholarly Communication of the Modern Language Association, where she helped shepherd the open access, open source network Humanities Commons. She co-founded the innovative scholarly communication initiative MediaCommons, and is author of Planned Obsolescence (2011) and The Anxiety of Obsolescence (2006). Follow her thoughts at @kfitz and her website.
The difficult times in which we live require innovative, creative, and hopeful pedagogies of adult education. This article describes a nontraditional experiential, “empathy-invoking” approach to the teaching of a graduate course on the theory and research of adult learning. The approach begins with the building of a safe learning community, a familiar “knowledge curriculum,” and a structured syllabus with academic readings, small group discussions, student “theory-to-practice” facilitation of learning activities, and an academic mid-term paper. Both the teacher and students design and lead learning activities which elaborate, “unpack,” and critique readings, and develop students’ capacity for experiential, emotional, spiritual, arts-based, and bodily learning as well as group process, all the while reinforcing trust, deeper relationships, cooperation, and better knowledge of each others’ lives, personalities, capabilities, and identities. The class culminates in creative presentations where learners transform the classroom into “living history museums” representing the sites of adult learning they have investigated in field research. Visitors to living history museums engage in a rich array of informal adult learning; they gain new knowledge, participate in hands-on learning and role playing, and at times even experience transformative learning. In this class, the museum and its learning opportunities come into the classroom, and are created by learners themselves.
En este artículo se analizan los resultados a los que llegó el equipo de trabajo del proyecto desarrollado por la Universidad de Chicago sobre las poblaciones tseltales y tsotsiles de Chiapas, concentrándose en su primera fase operativa (1956-1959) y en los documentos que ofrecieron visiones de conjunto. Se revisan las características generales de dicha empresa intelectual, se presenta cómo ha sido entendido el proyecto desde la disciplina antropológica y se ofrece una propuesta alternativa para su comprensión. Para finalizar, se estudian los aportes y contradicciones ofrecidos en el reporte y se muestran al lector elementos para revalidar las actividades emprendidas por el proyecto Chicago en Chiapas.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Social sciences (General)