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• The paper generalises the classical approach to structural change. • It brings together different ways of aggregating sectors and social groups. • Economic interdependencies can act as constraints to political-economic conflict. • Sectors and groups can hold different understandings of the system. • Such understandings and material and political conditions shape endogenous dynamics. The paper builds on the classical understanding of the interplay between material processes and political conflicts, but generalises it in several key respects. This approach does not assume relevant political-economic aggregations ex ante (such as industries or 'classes'); rather, it explores different possible ways of aggregating social groups and defining their interests depending on the situation under investigation. Moreover, interdependencies in the economy impose the need to keep conflicts within boundaries that are compatible with the viability of the system. Because sectors and groups can be aggregated in different ways, dynamics also depends on how actors represent the system and their position therein, and hence what they understand their interest to be. Different representations give rise to different definitions of competing interests and viability requirements, which in turn generate different endogenous dynamics of the political-economic system. The approach is illustrated through the examples of the Eurozone crisis and Covid-19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this review was to compare mandibular angle fracture fixation methods that were evaluated through randomized clinical trials considering postoperative complications. Additionally, different treatment methods were ranked based on their performance. A systematic review was performed based on the Cochrane and PRISMA guidelines. The quality of evidence and network meta-analysis were conducted using the GRADE tool and R software, respectively. Four databases were searched, and the papers were selected based on the PICOS strategy. A total of 3584 papers were found. After screening 15 papers were included. One plate placed on lateral border (tension zone) presented lower risk than one plate placed on superior border (tension zone) for infection [risk ratio (RR): 0.48, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.33 to 0.71] and plate removal necessity (RR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.28 to 0.69), with moderate quality of evidence. There were no significant differences among the mandibular angle fracture treatments for malocclusion and paraesthesia outcomes. In conclusion, one plate placed on the lateral border in the tension zone is the best choice regarding postoperative infection and plate removal necessity when fixing mandibular angle fractures. None of the tested fixation methods were associated with a significant risk of malocclusion and paraesthesia events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constantly shifting geopolitical-economic conditions of the Korean peninsula pose analytical challenges that existing approaches to the inter-Korean border have failed to address; they require a fresh epistemological perspective. The concept of a frontier, which has been widely employed in association with Western history, is helpful in elucidating these complexities. This paper claims that conflicting imperial interests and imperatives construct the inter-Korean border as a frontier. Once a geopolitical front line to recover lost territory and extend freedom, the inter-Korean border was relegated to the periphery as the Cold War order persisted. It was only after the early 2000s that a new geoeconomic vision of frontier was promoted in South Korean academia and policy circles. However, it is not a clear-cut transition but a more complicated competition between geopolitical and geoeconomic visions that has constructed the border in the form of a frontier. Examining the recent conflicts in border cities regarding the distribution of anti-North Korean leaflets across the border, this paper demonstrates that these imperial visions projected in the form of frontiers lay bare hope, profit, or desire but mask the suffering of local border people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous-derived boundaries have been existent since time immemorial in Australia. The landmark Mabo decision recognised the continued existence of Indigenous customary title under the common law and the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993 (NTA) codified the processes for recognition and extinguishment. After thirty years of ongoing recognition, Australia is moving into the implementation and leveraging phases of legislative Native Title. This paper considers how the boundaries of these interests can be unambiguously identified on the ground if required. To do this we first discuss Indigenous customary title itself, how boundaries were understood in pre-European Australia and the nature of evidence relied on by the Federal Court to make Native Title determinations. By examining all litigated Native Title determinations made under the NTA we analyse the decisions in light of the well-established common law boundary determination principles. Similarities are drawn between the hierarchy of evidence used to reinstate typical cadastral and Native Title boundaries. From this, an elementary framework was constructed to allow a surveyor to better understand the Court's decision-making. We conclude that it is too early to be definitive as to how the courts will resolve Native Title boundary disputes, if they ever eventuate, but there is sufficient evidence to make preliminary evaluations of the relative merit of Native Title boundary evidence. ● Native Title interests need to be unambiguously definable on the ground. ● Native Title boundaries are different in nature to conventional boundaries. ● Traditional evidence hierarchies are not valid for Native Title boundaries. ● Ambiguity in determination boundary descriptions need their own agreed resolution framework. ● Litigated Native Title determinations are the only source in determining the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Conceptually, this paper is about the becoming of states and how such states are a socially constructed spaces, imagined and performed by those who perceive themselves as belonging to that state. It asks through what imaginaries and performative practices does a state come into being? More specifically, the paper investigates how the state is imagined and performed in times of war and peace hoping to offer insights to the co-constitution of war or peace and the state. The analysis of the fledgling state and suspended state-making process makes visible the emplaced imaginary and performative quality of every state. It may also shed light on the constitutive relationship between war-making on one hand and state-making or state-breaking on the other, as it explores an embryotic process of crafting a state in the midst of war. Empirically, this paper investigates the state-making process of Republika Srpska (RS) through the conceptual lens of state becoming. Here RS figures both as an empirical state-making process, and as an example of an imagined and performed state to be conceptually explored. In particular it reads the irredentism of RS to justify its territorial claims on the basis of real or imagined historic or ethnic affiliations within the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the parallel state-making projects that remade the Western Balkans. Thus, this paper adds to the interdisciplinary debates on becoming a state as well as to imagined and performed statehood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes bargaining interactions recorded in Ghana's Kumasi Central Market to examine how traders employ kasadϵ ('sweet/persuasive talk') in transactional exchanges. Kasadϵ —a compound noun derived from kasa ('talk' or 'language') and dϵ ('sweet')—is a genre of market speech that simultaneously incorporates Akan norms of verbal politeness and the art of persuasion. In interviews on the metapragmatics of kasadϵ, market women highlighted their use of complimentary address forms and deference markers to pamper (krɔkrɔ) potential and recurring customers. My analysis of recorded bargaining interactions, however, revealed that traders also wield rougher, more argumentative language—a style that violates the Akan ideal of politeness and blurs the boundaries between conflict and mock conflict talk. That is, while traders reported that kasadϵ denotes good, polite speech, actual trading talk incorporates a mixture of indirect, direct, antagonistic, and deferential forms. Using two recorded bargaining interactions, this paper presents a detailed analysis of these juxtaposed forms of marketplace talk. I argue that while both styles are critical in economic exchanges—one for maintaining customer relationships, the other for protecting transactional gains—each presents interactional and transactional risks. The tension between these competing motivations creates interactional ambiguity and requires moment by moment navigation. • Ghanaian market traders use (kasadϵ) 'sweet talk' in bargaining transactions to nurture exchange relationships. • 'Sweet talk' in marketplace bargaining incorporates features of Akan verbal politeness. • Traders also use a verbal form that violates Akan politeness and hinges between conflict and mock conflict. • Both forms are critical in economic exchanges but present interactional and transactional risks. • Amid economic precarity a single transactional exchange is a high-stakes negotiation; traders rapidly pivot between forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extractive activities such as oil drilling, mining and fishing often appear implicated in international maritime boundary disputes. While natural resources' crucial role as a catalyst for conflict has been well-noted in the literature, such an approach has typically assumed a contextual and passive position of natural resources with little political agency for altering the dynamics of a confrontation. This paper provides an alternative perspective in which resource activities constitute a willful agent that works in part to govern the course of the boundary dispute. Drawing on Foucault's notion of governmentality, I look at how South Korean fishing activities near a disputed maritime border between the two Koreas, called the Northern Limit Line, may be imbued with intentionality representing an indirect arm of the state's geopolitical agenda. Mobilizing the realist narrative of an immovable border and the mundane tactics of education sessions and at-sea radio communication, I suggest that the South Korean government is seeking to create subjects in fishers to reinforce the state objectives of boundary legitimization and defense of claimed waters. The analysis, however, also demonstrates an ambivalent nature of governmentality, with fishers muddling the state interventions through their own conduct and rationale. The South Korean government thus faces a delicate task of managing the fishing operation vis-à-vis the boundary dispute. Taking the seemingly innocuous resource activity such as fishing to the center stage of power relations, this paper also tables one way of engaging with maritime boundaries, one of the understudied domains in political geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a study of the roji, a form of Japanese urban alleyway, which was once part of people’s personal spatial sphere and everyday life, but has increasingly been transformed by diverse and competing interests. Marginalized through the emergence of new forms of housing and public spaces and re-appropriated by different fields, the social meaning attached to the roji is being re-interpreted by individuals, subcultures and new social movements to fit hybrid and multiple concepts of living and lifestyles. Focusing on the case of Tsukuda–Tsukishima in central Tokyo and drawing on ethnographic data supported by a conceptual framework derived from theories of place and place-attachment, this paper investigates the kind of functions the roji fulfilled in the city in the past, and the qualities of urban life that have been lost or changed as the alleyway has ceased to be an everyday part of the urban landscape. Providing multiple narratives of change, the paper’s main purpose is to critically reflect on the potential of the recovery of the Japanese urban alleyway roji, arguing that the interstitial place of the roji can be characterised as a boundary between past and present (lifestyles), which is valuable space as it is desired and needed to express local voices, thoughts and personal opinions about urban change. In this sense, it continues to exist as imaginary, having a shared or social presence as mental space and an alternative landscape of reminiscence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines the role of place and spatial boundaries for the creative industries. Evidence from interviews with 70 workers in the advertising industry in London reveals the importance of geographical clustering for workers in this sector despite the potential of digital technologies. Creative firms are embedded in place, where the importance of urban aesthetics and social networks leads to tight geographic clustering. The aim of this paper is (i) to explore how and why geography matters for workers in the ‘new’ or ‘changing’ economy and (ii) how this creates a shared identity between creative workers. The article concludes that despite technological breakthroughs that have caused the death of distance, it turns out that geography is still important. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract This paper presents the results of a face-to-face survey of the attitudes of Polish fishermen towards Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP). Fishermen's self-assessed knowledge regarding MSP and their expectations were analysed. The conclusion reached shows that, despite similar access to information about MSP, Polish fishermen are less knowledgeable, more sceptical and more fearful of the MSP, than the other stakeholders involved. As a result, better education or more information on MSP would not suffice in making fishermen overcome their scepticism on the planning outcomes. In addition, the governing bodies of MSP should build trust and awareness, stimulate the stakeholders' interests in MSP, and convince the fishermen that MSP is friendly towards this specific sector. These findings did influence the MSP process in Poland, wherein MSP outreach was offered to the targeted groups of fishermen in the form of trust-building measures. A key lesson learned is that a capacity building process should be administered in such a way that the fishermen may easily distinguish it from other governance measures (e.g. under fishery or environment policy). An international component can play an important role in it. In conclusion, a number of observations are proposed with regard to future research on the attitudes of fishermen towards MSP. In particular, greater effort is necessary to better understand the motives of fishermen's scepticism towards the impact of MSP on their sector. Highlights • Polish fishermen are aware of the role of Maritime Spatial Planning. • They are less knowledgeable about the process than other sectors involved in MSP. • They are sceptical about the impact of Maritime Spatial Planning on their sector. • They prefer state-regulated marine governance rather than one driven by market forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies analyzing the Israeli–Arab and Israeli–Palestinian water issues focus on the international level, looking at countries as singular entities, and on the physical features of these issues. However, the outcome of negotiations is likely to be determined, to a significant extent, by the ability of negotiators to meet the expectations of different internal constituencies. The win-sets available to negotiators are molded by the sanctioned discourse within societies. Hence, the potential for reaching agreements should not be analyzed without due regard to internal discourses. This paper analyzes the shifts in the internal Israeli water discourse. It argues that despite the seemingly immutable water policy scene within Israel, the previous unison discourse has fragmented in the last decade as a result of structural changes in the Israeli society and economy. These changes have the potential to increase the win-sets available to negotiators. However, the specific implications for the negotiations will be effected by the relative power of the different discourse coalitions identified in the paper, and their ability to sanction their story lines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is about the inhabitants of a small village in Bangladesh, which lies on the border with the Indian state of Assam. Due to an Indo-Bangladesh agreement, inhabitants are confronted with losing their agricultural lands. In addition, since 2010, the Border Security Force of India (BSF) impedes residents in approaching their gardens, an action that has led to repeated confrontations between the bsf and the villagers. Both threats instigate high levels of fear among the residents. However, their hopes are also high. How can we explain equally high levels of fear and hope among the residents? I suggest that the simultaneous surfacing of fear and hope sheds light on "bipolar" state practices on the ground (i.e., at the same time targeting and protecting lives), as well as the entanglement of the existential and the political (i.e., vulnerability and a demand for recognition) in the everyday lives of the residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The pattern of three functional spaces and three space conflicts are described. • An index for analyzing the intensity of space conflicts is constructed. • The moderate boundary theory is proposed based on the principle of value equilibrium. • Conflicts within moderate boundary are reserved as urban construction space. • Conflicts outside moderate boundary are reserved as production or ecological space. The multi-functionality and the finiteness of land resources collectively determine the inevitable space conflicts among urban construction space (SUC), grain production space (SGP), and ecological protection space (SEP) in planning. Moreover, the increasing urban expansion is expected to further exacerbate these conflicts. However, there is a lack of research on solving space conflicts in planning under the multi-objective. Given this, taking Xuzhou City as an example, using planning data, we analyzed the patterns of space conflicts. Then we proposed a novel method to extract the urban moderate boundary (UMB) based on the principle of value equilibrium. Finally, using UMB as the space boundary to solve the conflicts. The results show that we detected three types of space conflicts, namely construction-production conflicts (CPC), construction-ecological conflicts (CEC), and production-ecological conflicts (PEC), with an area of 17.31 km2, 14.13 km2, and 3.24 km2 of each conflicting area respectively. The land value corresponding to the UMB is 941.90 yuan / km2. The CPC and CEC within the UMB should be reserved as SUC, those outer parts of the boundary should be reserved as SGP and SEP. The PEC should be reserved as SEP according to the principle of ecological priority. After conflict resolution, the new layout of urban functional space was obtained, showing an area of 240.18 km2, 42.56 km2, and 55.35 km2 for SUC, SGP, and SEP, respectively. The new perspective and method proposed in this paper can provide a reference for urban planning and urban functional space layout optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal livelihoods and marine environmental protection are key ocean governance concerns. Consequently, the international legal framework addresses these needs in a holistic manner. Maritime boundary delimitation should not be the exception. Increasingly, international courts and tribunals are being asked to incorporate a wider range of issues in the resolution of maritime boundary disputes. Therefore, drawing on the full compendium of international marine boundary dispute cases from 1969 to 2021, this paper examines how litigation over maritime boundary disputes reflects broader ocean governance objectives. It concludes that, first, court cases on maritime boundaries are increasing, and second, environmental and sociocultural motives are gaining prominence in the pleas made by nations. Moreover, our analysis suggests that: a) arguments to the courts progressively emphasize holistic and ecosystem-based management and the recognition of traditional ocean-related living practices; and b) although courts and tribunals are called to weigh other types of factors, they are still more receptive to conventional arguments embodied in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). We argue that the newer arguments should have a greater influence during conflict resolution and maritime delimitation processes, in particular, given the greater need for sustainable and equitable ocean governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Research on borderlands in recent years has emphasized the variation in how boundaries and borders operate for different groups of people and institutions in theera of globalization. Capital, goods, and people withresources inhabit an almost “borderless world.” In contrast, people in the less developed regions tend to experience borders more asbarriers. Borders create different lived experience for people who reside in particular borderlands as distinctive in-between spaces. This paper contends to understand the formation of borderlands and their meanings in the current context of globalization, especially those created as part of colonizationor the legacies thereof. We need to carefully analyze the embedded experience of inhabitants’ informal and fluid lived experiences that straddle national geopolitical disputes, local conflicts and negotiations, and in-between urban spaces characterized by what we call “relative urbanity”. We offer supporting evidence for this argument via a grounded analysis of the links and interactions between people living in and across two borderlands along China’s and Bangladesh’s boundaries with Eastern India—that were acreation of British colonial rule in India and have evolved with and beyond this colonial legacy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: What is the role of citizenship in a protest? How are civilian rights used as a source of power to craft socio-spatial strategies of dissent? I argue that the growing civilian consciousness of the “power to” (i.e. capacity to act) and of the border as public space is enhancing civil participation and new dissent strategies through which participants consciously and sophisticatedly use their citizenship as a tool, offering different conceptualizations of borders. This paper examines the role of citizenship in the design and performance of dissent focusing on two groups of Israeli activists, Machsom Watch and Anarchists against the Wall. Using their Israeli citizenship as a source of power, these groups apply different strategies of dissent while challenging the discriminating practices of control in occupied Palestinian territories. These case studies demonstrate a growing civilian consciousness of the mutable nature of borders as designed by state power. Analyzing the ways actors consciously and sophisticatedly use citizenship as a tool in their dissent, which is aimed at supporting indigenous noncitizens, I argue that Machsom Watch and Anarchists against the Wall enact and promote different models of citizenship and understandings of borders, in Israel/Palestine. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

North and South Korea have clashed twice over their boundary in the Yellow (West) Sea. The issue is quite complicated, resulting from differences over the validity of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) and the appropriate maritime boundary, exacerbated by competition for valuable blue crab. This paper describes the incidents and the issues, analyzes the NLL and boundary disputes, and proposes possible solutions to this dangerous situation. Although the NLL is—or was—a useful temporary conflict avoidance device, treating it as a permanent maritime boundary is not supported by legal principles and precedents. Ways forward include creating a military-free joint fishing zone with an agreed code of conduct for fishing vessels operating there. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We improve the finite Markov Chain process and blend Fuzzy Delphi and Grey Delphi methods as novel contributions. • We apply our findings for the transboundary dispute of peace engineering, and explain how our work is relevant. • Our simulations show the convergence of three different cases to support transboundary cases with low probabilities. • Our method simulate transboundary dispute with peaceful conditions and then volatile situations. • Our model can be applied in several domains and show important lessons to demonstrate research contributions. Existing literature in group-decision making proposed various rules of aggregating individuals' opinions to group outcomes.With anonymity maintained, this paper can model round-robin assessments by a group with individuals updating their assessments every round in a Bayesian manner as per Bordley (1983 , 1986 , 2009). Utilizing the properties of the finite Markov Chain process, the analysis shows (a) the conditions for a group consensus to converge, (b) the maximum number of rounds before such convergence occurs, and (c) the consensus assessment. The resulting dynamic model is tested to show that it also captures the results of several empirical studies. We apply them to the negotiationfor the transboundary dispute and our simulations demonstrate the convergence of three different cases of lower possibilities, which support transboundary cases and resolutions. We also develop algorithms based on Fuzzy Delphi (Murray et al. 1985, Ishikawa et al. 1993) and Grey Delphi Methods (Ma et al., 2011) to predict the probability and likely outcomes of the transboundary dispute between China and India, which is one of the cases with low probability. Upon 1,000 simulations under volatile international relations, the development of theconvergence demonstrates the integrated Delphi Method is more suitable for predicting volatile situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]