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Introduction: Aging in rural settings worldwide, from the perspective of cognition, physical function, and life purpose essential constructs for a prosperous old age, still needs comprehensive discussion. This systematic review protocol aims to highlight the prevalence of cognitive decline, physical functioning, and life purpose in older adults aging in rural community settings. Methods and analysis: We will include cross-sectional studies published until April 2023 found in 8 databases: Embase, MEDLINE, LILACS, PsycINFO, Scopus, SciELO, and Web of Science. Ryyan software will be used for the first selection, and the Observational Study Quality Evaluation (OSQE) will assess methodological quality and risk of bias. Primary analysis will involve titles and abstracts using MeSH descriptors such as "Physical functioning," "Cognition," "Cognitive function," "Life purpose," "Elderly," "Older," "Rural aging," "Rural population," "Communities, rural," "Distribution, rural spatial," "Medium communities," "Rural settlement," "Small community." If necessary, secondary analysis will include a complete reading of selected articles by two blinded reviewers, confirmed by a third person. Publication bias will be assessed using cross-sectional analytical study quality. Sensitivity analyses will identify manuscripts significantly influencing combined prevalence of endpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Ludwig Anzengruber's best-known narrative text, the novel Der Sternsteinhof (1884), in particular its affiliation with realism and Austrian precursors of naturalism. It discusses the history of the novel's genesis as well as the question of Austrian naturalism in general in order to analyze the text for socially critical aspects, for disillusioned fairy tale motifs, for the representation of the village and the realities of rural life, and for reference to Darwinian figures of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A localized parameter system is constructed for the Taihu Lake Basin based on the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) to predict the rural population and economy including ANPSP from 2020 to 2050. The results show that: (1) Under the five paths of SSP1–SSP5, the population will continue to decrease, and the scenarios from large to small are SSP3 > SSP1 > SSP2 > SSP4 > SSP5. Agricultural GDP continues to rise under the SSP1, SSP4 and SSP5, and rises first and then slowly declines under the SSP2 and SSP3. (2) The ANPSP caused by living and production will show a downward trend. The scenarios with the highest and lowest rural life pollution are SSP3 and SSP5, and the scenarios with the highest and lowest agricultural production pollution are SSP5 and SSP1, respectively. The total pollution will be reduced, however the reduction rate will gradually slow down, and the pollution caused by rural production and life is difficult to completely avoid. (3) The total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) pollution showed a similar trend. Both types of pollutants are mainly from agricultural production activities, however the proportion of rural domestic pollution is gradually increasing. Agricultural production has a greater impact on TP, while rural life contributes more to TN than TP. (4) SSP1 is the only path that can prevent ANPSP and achieve agricultural economic growth. On the contrary, SSP3 leads to the increase of ANPSP and the decrease of agricultural GDP, which brings the double pressure of economic growth and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What shapes the host population's willingness to accept refugees into social, economic, and political life in their country? We argue that refugees' ethnicity plays a key role—both directly and indirectly—in shaping support for having refugees as neighbors and for granting them a work permit or citizenship. Fielding a conjoint experiment in Turkey (N  = 2,362), we find that locals discriminate against Syrian Arab and Kurdish refugees compared to Turkomans. Although a university degree, social ties with locals, and knowledge of language boost prorefugee attitudes, ethnic bias may attenuate their effect. For example, local language knowledge increases support for Arab refugee profiles, but only when it comes to granting them a work permit, but not having them as neighbors or granting citizenship. In contrast, it increases support for profiles of Turkomans and Kurds in all the three domains. Thus, strategies such as learning the local language may not advance all refugees in all domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many minoritised and marginalised populations, including young people, are debating what constitutes a 'survivable life' and, in turn, how life can be arranged so that it is more than just survival. Notwithstanding these trends, however, there is little scholarly work on local discourses and practices of life and viability. This paper addresses this gap by examining the spatial and temporal process through which young people imagine and build viable lives in an area of the Indian Himalayas. We highlight the importance for these young people of building life as 'jeevan', an idea particularly associated with survival. We also highlight the significance they attach to protecting a wider, 'puri life' ('whole life'), a process that affords opportunities for enjoyment and ethical fulfilment beyond survival. This account of life thought 'on the ground' provides a basis for reflecting on Agamben's (Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press; 1998) arguments about the prevalence of 'bare life' in the contemporary world. This paper examines how young people develop ideas of life in contemporary rural north India. It highlights their tendency to imagine life in terms of the relationship between 'jeevan' (core, human life) and 'puri life': the wider social, environmental and spiritual/cultural milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the redistribution and rescaling of societal risk in rural Britain during the COVID-19 pandemic, as one episode of the permacrisis. Drawing on empirical work in three contrasting areas of Scotland and England, we analyse individuals' experiences of risk and of the institutions which offer them support in times of crisis (markets, state, voluntary and community organisations, and family and friends). Our findings reveal the unequal distribution of societal risk during the pandemic, exacerbated by a legacy of precariatisation and individualisation in the labour market and welfare reforms. Although the state acted to mitigate risk and financial hardship during the lockdown, it was often voluntary and community organisations that filled the gaps left by the inability of the state to reach effectively into rural areas. Social infrastructure and institutional capital are therefore central to the mitigation of vulnerability and societal risk. This raises important questions about the capacity of institutions to provide support in times of crisis to rural citizens. Unless there is societal pooling of risk through such institutions to ensure social protection and that nobody is disadvantaged by where they live, future episodes of the permacrisis are likely to exacerbate inequalities and vulnerabilities in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assesses the perceived impact of health status across life domains. Although research has explored the relationship between specific conditions, including HIV, and HRQoL in low-resource settings, less attention has been paid to the association between multimorbidity and HRQoL. In a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the Vukuzazi ("Wake up and know ourselves" in isiZulu) study, which identified the prevalence and overlap of non-communicable and infectious diseases in the uMkhanyakunde district of KwaZulu-Natal, we (1) evaluated the impact of multimorbidity on HRQoL; (2) determined the relative associations among infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and HRQoL; and (3) examined the effects of controlled versus non-controlled disease on HRQoL. HRQoL was measured using the EQ-5D-3L, which assesses overall perceived health, five specific domains (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression), and three levels of problems (no problems, some problems, and extreme problems). Six diseases and disease states were included in this analysis: HIV, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure, and TB. After examining the degree to which number of conditions affects HRQoL, we estimated the effect of joint associations among combinations of diseases, each HRQoL domain, and overall health. Then, in one set of ridge regression models, we assessed the relative impact of HIV, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure, and tuberculosis on the HRQoL domains; in a second set of models, the contribution of treatment (controlled vs. uncontrolled disease) was added. A total of 14,008 individuals were included in this analysis. Having more conditions adversely affected perceived health (r = -0.060, p<0.001, 95% CI: -0.073 to -0.046) and all HRQoL domains. Infectious conditions were related to better perceived health (r = 0.051, p<0.001, 95% CI: 0.037 to 0.064) and better HRQoL, whereas non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were associated with worse perceived health (r = -0.124, p<0.001, -95% CI: 0.137 to -0.110) and lower HRQoL. Particular combinations of NCDs were detrimental to perceived health, whereas HIV, which was characterized by access to care and suppressed viral load in the large majority of those affected, was counterintuitively associated with better perceived health. With respect to disease control, unique combinations of uncontrolled NCDs were significantly related to worse perceived health, and controlled HIV was associated with better perceived health. The presence of controlled and uncontrolled NCDs was associated with poor perceived health and worse HRQoL, whereas the presence of controlled HIV was associated with improved HRQoL. HIV disease control may be critical for HRQoL among people with HIV, and incorporating NCD prevention and attention to multimorbidity into healthcare strategies may improve HRQoL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars have studied the effects of economic conditions on subjective well-being, but scarce attention has been paid to the effect of cultural and social determinants on quality of life. This study aims to analyse the effect of social cohesion considered as a characteristic of a country on subjective quality of life. In addition, we also tested the moderating effect of social cohesion on the relationship between income and placement in society with quality of life. To test our hypotheses we estimated a multilevel regression model. First, we estimated the null model, which showed that almost a quarter of the variance in quality of life is located at country level. Second, we included in the model all the level-1 predictors. This model highlighted that self-evaluated position on the social ladder has a larger positive effect than income on quality of life. In the third step, we added country-level predictors. Controlling for other macro factors—GDP, Life Expectancy, Gini coefficient and Homicide rate—and individual-level variables, we shows that Cohesion exerts a positive effect on subjective quality of life. The model also points out that country's economic conditions (measured by GDP) do not affect quality of life when we control this relationship for social cohesion. Interestingly, also the within-country economic disparities (measured by Gini coefficient) do not seem to affect quality of life when cohesion is taken into account. Finally, we also shows that the positive effect of income on quality of life is moderated by cohesion. In other words, income is a relatively less important factor in determining quality of life in countries with higher levels of cohesion. In the same way, individuals' position and perception of their placement on the social ladder affects in a lesser extent their quality of life in those countries that have higher degrees of cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For citizens in the Middle East, is wasta an accepted traditional practice or a form of corruption that has harmful effects on society? Scholarship remains divided on how exactly to view wasta, with some scholars pointing to its role in fostering in-group ties and providing a problem-solving mechanism, with others charging that wasta promotes poor governance and weak accountability. What citizens think rarely enters the picture. In this article, I argue that Jordanian citizens consider wasta a negative force in society, one that divides them from each other and makes them feel disengaged from the political life of their country. I use evidence from thirty-seven interviews with Jordanian youth, and data from the Jordanian NGO Leaders of Tomorrow's 'FADFED' initiative, a novel qualitative method for gathering opinion data from citizens. This article challenges scholars to take wasta's role in state-society tensions in the Middle East more seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor market is a dynamic and complex dimension that includes lots of segment economic and social life of a country who have their significant impact in the way this entire report functions in harmony with policies and resource requirements for employment and the labor market. Dependence between key segments with the state structure and mechanisms is vital in correctly addressing the needs of the labor market. In this context - the systematic follow up of the dynamics and the demand of the labor market and the tendency to adapt them to the curricula of all educational levels to prepare staff for these needs it is a very effective and correct way drafted public employment policies in the most efficient way, which can create stable and easily measurable results in the labor market, as the involvement of industry/employers in these processes also has it own importance. For this purpose, this paper aims and contains the basic elements of information for specific fields which are evaluated as current trends of the demand that the labor market has in the Republic of Kosovo, but also presents the gapes that the system faces in general as a part of many challenges which the labor market actually has. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains the aesthetic element of the hand in the artworks of Slovenian regionalist painter Ive Šubic (1922-1989). It elaborates the reasons why the author believes that Šubic's work was a unique combination of regionalism and partisan art. During his professional life, after he participated in the partisan uprising against occupational forces in WW II, Šubic was considered a genuine partisan painter. He was highly praised by the Communist establishment, and he received several prestige awards. However, after the middle of the 1950s, when he slowly and quietly withdrew from the public life, he gradually became nostalgic. The hands on his paintings and public murals, portrayed as overworked hands with thick fingers and knuckles affected by hard farm work, are the central link between Šubic's experiences of war and his perception of the once genuine experience of rural life in Poljane Valley, lost for good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been reported that living far from the peritoneal dialysis (PD) unit is a risk factor for peritonitis. Considering that PD units are urban located; the question of whether living in a rural area compared to an urban area is a risk factor for peritonitis has arisen. From March 2010 to August 2020, 335 episodes of peritonitis in 202 PD patients followed in a single center were evaluated retrospectively. People living in areas with a population <1000 were defined as living in rural areas regardless of their distance from the PD center. Cox regression analysis was used to identify independent factors associated with peritonitis. A total of 202 PD patients were followed during 791 patient-years (mean follow-up of 3.9 years per patient). Total patients had 335 episodes of peritonitis and the rate of peritonitis was 0.42 episodes per year (episodes/patient-year). Cox regression analysis revealed that living environment (urban vs. rural) was not a risk factor for peritonitis (p = 0.57). In Turkey, we report that living in a rural area in our region is not a risk factor for peritonitis. It is not the right approach for both the physician and the patient to be reluctant in the choice of PD due to the concern of peritonitis in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meaning in life has become an important topic in empirical research in the psychology of religion. Although it has been studied and found applicable in many different contexts, research on meaning in life and sources of meaning in African countries is scarce. This study qualitatively investigates understandings and experiences of meaning in life and sources of meaning among urban and village dwellers with different educational backgrounds in Zambia. Seven focus group interviews (total N = 52) were conducted and analysed, drawing on Schnell's model of meaning in life and sources of meaning. The results indicate that the concept of meaning in life is relevant to both urban and village dwellers in Zambia. Meaning experiences and sources of meaning are associated with certain life domains: relationships; religion; education and work; leisure activities; and health and survival. Each life domain includes several fundamental sources of meaning, which can be related to Schnell's four dimensions of sources of meaning: self-transcendence, self-actualisation, order and well-being and relatedness. The results are discussed in light of extant studies on meaning and cultural characteristics in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vox, a rising far-right party, plays on concerns about the emptying Spanish countryside to promote its authoritarian version of traditional values. Lately it has developed an environmental narrative portraying rural life as under threat from progressive policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries, the Catholic Church demanded that baptisms take place in the hours immediately after birth. This custom began to lose importance in the last decade of the nineteenth century, which increased the average time between birth and baptism. However, some children continued to be baptized shortly following their birth. Our objective is to analyze whether early baptism could serve as an indicator of the state of a child's health in the short and long term. In our examination of the period 1890-1939, the results confirm that children with early baptisms were more likely to die (especially during the first month of life), married earlier and at a greater rate compared to the general population and, probably, experienced shorter lifespans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although wine tourism is predominantly described as an activity practised by middle-aged adults who travel without children to experience, learn about and buy wines, it has been considered to attract unexpected markets, such as families with children, mainly in rural destinations where wine and grape production occur in a particular natural, cultural and social context. However, research on families with children undertaking wine tourism is scarce and little is known about the features and heterogeneity of this market. This study analyses, through a survey research, visitors travelling as a family with children on three Portuguese wine routes (n=370), regarding general profile, travel motivation, attractions visited, satisfaction and loyalty. Results suggest two profiles of family visitors to Central Portugal wine routes: those focused on wine-related attractions and activities and those more interested in having fun and socialising in a wine region, enjoying its landscapes, culture and rural life. In our sample, the first group is almost totally composed of domestic visitors, accompanied mainly by children under 10 years. The second group includes some international visitors, and a higher presence of 'older' children and adolescents. Family visitors focused on wine attractions tend to indicate more suggestions for route improvement, primarily related to the availability of varied wine tourism experiences, including child-friendly activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his Letters from Lake Como, Romano Guardini distilled the characteristics of a cultural shift from a rural community to an industrialized society. Decades later, he would complete and refine his vision of that shift in The End of the Modern World. In the two books, but especially in Letters, Guardini argued for the possibility of a conciliation between a Christianity that differs from medieval Christianity, or Christendom, and an artificial, technologically infused culture that is no longer rooted in the rural life of pre-modern civilization. In this essay, I return to Guardini's concept of a Christianized industrialism, a modern culture that is embedded in technology and yet open to transcendence. I show the groundlessness of such a concept in continuity with Hans Urs von Balthasar's concise assessment of Guardini's work, which Balthasar saw as firm and groundless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the southern Vietnamese metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City has seen a proliferation of urban gardening, ranging from the minute home-growing of herbs and vegetables to commercial urban gardens. In this article, I argue that what underlies these phenomena is urbanites' striving to control the food they consume in light of prevalent food safety concerns in Vietnam. Based on ethnographic research, the article demonstrates that urban food growing efforts are largely related to a widespread crisis of confidence in the food system in general and in farming specifically. People are particularly concerned with agrochemical contamination of food and its long-term health effects. Meanwhile, tensions exist between negative views of "unsafe" practices of unknown farmers and the simultaneous romanticization of rural life and of food acquired through personal rural connections. In the context of growing socio-economic inequalities in the late socialist country, the research also examines how urban gardening as an individualized and middle-class activity renders visible class differences in access to locally produced, "safe" food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Colombia, I once heard a farmer reject a humanitarian demining project operating in her community. "Land mines are our smallest problem," she said. Creating a moment of ethical disconcertment, she sought to slow down humanitarian imperatives. I place her in conversation with local pleas for "demining with development," illustrating how they challenge the logic and temporality of humanitarian mine action, drawing attention to the complexity of the violence that silently stalks rural life despite peace gestures and accords. By making such ecologies of trouble apparent, farmers enact what I call a politics of troublemaking. Offering a feminist take on the pacifying label of "troublemaker," I understand this politics as a demand to recognize the troubles of the living and dying in abandoned and occupied landscapes. These places are currently objects of a peace process that seeks to recuperate them, but they are also haunted by the dangers of dispossession, development, and postconflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1960s–1970s in Ecuador, Indigenous and peasant movements challenged the descriptions of rural life in government education programmes while offering a space of transculture. As Sylvia Wynter [2003. 'Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation – An Argument.' CR: The New Centennial Review 3 (3): 257–337.] proposes it, such space allows to narrate human life with sensibilities non-aligned with normalised cultural particularities of the ideal tacit 'we' in national(ised) stories. This text engages with the convivial movements between narratives and counternarratives about rural lives and ways of living. It argues that rural can be thought as a genre and ruralness as a practice of existence, which disrupt overdetermining notions of what counts as dignified life, valid political demands, and possible futures. That disruption is an exercise of conviviality where Indigenous and racialised peoples challenge a living together under rules and practices that demand their assimilation or erasure. Their luchas (fights) are proposals for coexistence through social change. Particularly the article looks at how the poem The Bread of Life, published in the bilingual Kichwa/Spanish newspaper Jatari Campesino, pushed back against the logics of 'bettering' lives offered by Fundamental Education and Community Development projects. These were projects espoused by the Ecuadorian Government and UNESCO and funded by the Alliance for Progress, among other foreign aid agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anna Lvovsky, Vice Patrol: Cops, Courts, and the Struggle over Urban Gay Life before Stonewall (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2021, $35.00). I Vice Patrol i attends to how the legal system's conflicting approaches to public performances of cis-male homosexuality, media narratives of gay life, and gay public culture informed one another in the mid-twentieth-century United States. Both Lvovsky and Thomsen speculate about some of the many ways this queer opacity has manifested, largely among white queers in the US. [Extracted from the article]

The study pays attention on both the concept of sustainable development and the concept of transdisciplinarity. We analyze the impact over the quality of life in rural areas in today's Knowledge Society via SDG 4: Quality Education. The study clarifies the concept of transdisciplinarity, through concepts easier to understand such as: disciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, from the very author of the concept, Basarab Nicolescu. It also clarifies the concept of Knowledgde Society and its demands, focusing the analysis on the general impact of Knowledge Society on sustainable development with references on the quality of life and along with SDGs perspective. This analysis is needed to fill a gap that exists in understanding the concept of transdisciplinarity itself and the transdisciplinarity approach in general. The topic is an extensive one and by bring in it to analyses, it is destined to raise the awareness to the scientific community interests in order to encourage alternative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notions of the good life are often strongly linked to rurality. Existing conceptualisations tend towards an anthropocentric and individualised approach centred on personal wealth, status and happiness. In contrast, this article reframes the good life as an interspecies endeavur, which embeds people and animals alike by recognising their interdependent relational configurations within the wider natural‐social environment. Specifically, we bring insights from the concept of buen vivir to bear on research among people who live alongside their horses in rural areas of the UK. We find that horses enhance, enable and mediate people's understanding and experience of the rural good life. In contrast to popular and scholarly conceptions that emphasise privilege and leisure, the interspecies iteration that emerges is characterised by hard work, collaboration and purposeful active learning. This has profound implications in turn for our understanding and experience of sustainability, as these interspecies relations lead participants into a more active stewardship of both the immediate and wider environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few articles explain how life satisfaction and happiness influence intention to migrate to another country. This study fills the gap by investigating the desire to emigrate in relation to individual life satisfaction while testing for moderation effects of national life satisfaction scores, the Human Development Index and Gender Inequality Index at country level. The empirical analysis is based on the unique Gallup World Poll data for 127 countries in 2017. In line with previous research, the findings confirm a negative association between life satisfaction (both individual and country level) and the desire to emigrate. Furthermore, results point to mean country life satisfaction, human development and gender inequality levels acting as moderators of individual‐level life satisfaction on the desire to emigrate. Higher aggregate life satisfaction levels act as counter‐forces to individual life satisfaction, performing as enablers of stay versus move. In countries with lower human development and higher gender inequality, individual life satisfaction will act as an enabler to move. A comprehensive discussion includes findings for gender and age groups and those born or not born in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifestyles signify who people are and who people want to be. They contain one's value orientation toward the world. The speeding urbanization over the globe has made the urban lifestyle mainstream, and so does it in China. The overwhelming range of options in cities represents a consumerist society, but meanwhile, there is an emergent underground alternative, especially from the younger generations who are pursuing a "more meaningful life." This paper does an ethnographic study on young Chinese urbanites' engagement in a village as an essential example of this trend. It argues that young people's choice for rural life is a reaction and a resistance to the social forces of consumerism and urbanization. By reflecting on the reimagination of modernity and life politics in the changing process, the research implies that accompanied by opportunities for social change, young people's promotion of rural lifestyles could be linked to the government's development agenda, and this might potentially cause new forms of inequalities in rural development. By drawing on practical experience, the paper brings narratives about young Chinese urbanites' life choices in rural places into the discussion of modernity and life politics, hopefully exemplifying a broader sociological contribution around the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on 24 months of participant observation and interviews with adolescent arrivals in the central coast region of California, this study examines how recently arrived immigrant teens create spaces of belonging. This immigrant population is simultaneously undergoing two life-changing transitions—adolescence and immigration. These two, life-altering transitions, greatly shape the trajectories of immigrant youth in the host country. Unfamiliar with US customs, the educational system, or the mainstream language, adolescent arrivals constantly struggle to belong in a place they hardly know. I advance the concept of immigrant youth vitality to conceptually analyze how shared experiences based on the age of migration and context of reception shape how immigrant youth create safe spaces for themselves. As recent immigrants and teenage newcomers, adolescent arrivals are experiencing for the first time the wrath of anti-immigrant politics directed at them. This study shows that adolescent arrivals often navigate life in the host country by relying on the familiar and their collective experiences including discrimination and exclusion to create spaces where they feel safe and welcomed. I find that by claiming safe spaces the youth actively engage in redefining what belonging means, looks, and feels like for newcomer teenagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many student groups are visiting the exhibition including Mollie Young from Bruton School for Girls who wrote I I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Somerset Rural Life Museum to see Alice Kettle's inspiring exhibition: Thread Bearing Witness. The Somerset Rural Life Museum is a surprising place to see this glorious exhibition, yet the magnificent 14th Century Abbey Barn forms a perfect backdrop to Alice Kettle's monumental machine embroidered triptych I GROUND, SEA & SKY i and, at the opposite end of the Barn, the jewel like installation " I STITCH-A-TREE-Karachi i " combining small sewn squares from thousands of individual contributors. This inspiring project started in 2017 when Kettle's daughter Tamsin Koumis returned from the Dunkirk camp where, as co-founder of the Dunkirk Legal Support Team, Koumis had found herself at the center of the migration crisis in Europe. [Extracted from the article]

Paysages et paysans: la vie rurale en France au XIXe siècle, 1820–1905 was the anodyne title of a loan exhibition inaugurated in March of 1978 at Beijing's National Gallery of China. As the first exhibition of Western painting in China after the instauration of the Communist regime in 1949, the show was a cultural- diplomatic landmark; its planning and reception can refresh our understanding of both Franco–Chinese cultural relations in the waning years of Maoism and the diplomatically recuperative uses of French nineteenth-century painting. This article uncovers the rationales of French actors and institutions as revealed in archival documents and then scrutinizes the unexpected reception of an art exhibition that remains an important episode in cross-cultural relations and aesthetic reclamation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many stroke survivors' quality of life is impaired. Few studies of factors influencing their quality of life have been based on the factors tested by the short form 36 instrument. This study did so with 308 physically disabled stroke survivors in rural China. Principal components analysis was applied to refine the dimension structure of the short form 36 assessment, followed by backward multiple linear regression analysis to determine the independent factors influencing quality of life. The structure revealed differed from the generic structure in showing that the mental health and vitality dimensions are not unidimensional. Subjects who reported access to the outdoors as convenient demonstrated better quality of life in all dimensions. Those who exercised regularly achieved better social functioning and negative mental health scores. Other factors influencing a better quality of life in terms of physical functioning were younger age and not being married. Being older and better educated predicted better role-emotion scores. Being female correlated with better social functioning scores, while men scored better on bodily pain. Being less educated predicted higher negative mental health, while being less disabled predicted better physical and social functioning. The results suggest that the SF-36's dimension structure should be re-evaluated before using it to assess stroke survivors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard of living estimates the economic aspect of the quality of life. It is also a yardstick for social development with implications for society's impact on the environment. This issue is of increasing practical significance in these troubled times. Here, we identify the key requirements for a modern standard of living, the main factors contributing to the change in the standard of living in Ukraine, the current quality of life in the country, and its impact on the environment. Unsurprisingly, war is diminishing the quality of life. We propose ways to improve this quality of life that may contribute to Ukraine's socio-economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Maynard Keynes is frequently mentioned in Money and Empire, where he stands out for his book on the Indian gold exchange standard and his highly informative and perceptive account of the crisis of 1914. Based on de Cecco's book, one may be induced to think that, before WWI, Keynes was an economist deeply involved in the public life of his country and the administration of the Empire. However, this contrasts with the young economist's image that has crystallised in the literature on Keynes. In the attempt to solve this contradiction, it is possible to show that the conventional image of the young Keynes is far from satisfactory. Moreover, even though Money and Empire is not altogether reliable in presenting Keynes's ideas, this old book by Marcello de Cecco may still have a significant contribution to give in the literature on Keynes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to determine and analyse the socioeconomic impacts on agricultural production of the 2 earthquakes with magnitudes of 7.4 and 7.3 that occurred in Turkey on February 6, 2023, a research survey was conducted and the data obtained from the surveys were evaluated. The survey was carried out in 15 villages in total, in 3 villages selected to represent each of the 5 districts where the earthquake was intensely felt. According to the results, besides the loss of life and property in rural areas, the earthquake had a significant impact on production factors, especially the stock of warehouses, tractor capital, manpower, and caused disruptions in supply chains and delays in agricultural activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evangelical Protestantism helped frame the thinking of many Populist Party members in Virginia, providing them with a prophetic voice that criticized the political and economic status quo, while also furnishing a traditional language that privileged rural custom and community. Rowland Berthoff once characterized American Populism as a "mixture of static peasant-Puritan-republican nostalgia and dynamic secular-millennial progressivism." This article contends that Virginia Populists may best exemplify that peculiar hybrid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even as the 2016 elections brought increased public attention to rural life, stereotypes and misconceptions abound. One of these misperceptions is the generalization that prices are lower in rural areas. This article is a restudy of Zimmerman, Ham, and Frank (2008) research on geographic differences in the costs of living. Asking the same fundamental question—if someone bought the same thing in a rural and urban area, would they pay the same price?—and using the same methodology, the results 10 years later indicate that, contrary to popular perception, there was again no consistent pattern of lower prices in rural counties and no consistent pattern of a lower rural cost of living in all of the rural areas. While prices are only one piece of the larger picture of how rural households meet their needs, in addition to price differences, the results highlight how differences in rural life create additional costs that extend beyond prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to present an alternative measure of fertility—cross-sectional average length of life by parity (CALP)—which: (1) is a period fertility indicator using all available cohort information; (2) captures the dynamics of parity transitions; and (3) links information on fertility quantum and timing together as part of a single phenomenon. Using data from the Human Fertility Database, we calculate CALP for 12 countries in the Global North. Our results show that women spend the longest time at parity zero on average, and in countries where women spend comparatively longer time at parity zero, they spend fewer years at parities one and two. The analysis is extended by decomposing the differences in CALPs between Sweden and the United States, revealing age- and cohort-specific contributions to population-level differences in parity-specific fertility patterns. The decomposition illustrates how high teenage fertility in the United States dominates the differences between these two countries in the time spent at different parities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people who migrate to another country, especially in the context of forced migration, must face complex and lengthy challenges. From a psychological point of view, the main challenges of migration are the re-signification of one's identity, the re-establishment of one's own life in the new country, and facing different social and institutional challenges as well as individual difficulties. All these challenges may constitute a threat to young migrants' identity. Based on the Motivated Identity Construction Theory, this study aimed to explore—in a sample of refugees—the identity threats faced by forced migrants in the settlement phase and the resources most frequently activated in dealing with this sensitive phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of community has become the dominant focus of academic discussions in the field of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) research. Some scholars have criticised the idealised usage of this concept as obscuring the empirical tensions and suggest that it should be replaced by "actor-network." Instead, this article argues that even when there is no real network among actors, heritage community may still rely on social imaginary to exist. It is the relationship that people establish between the present and the past that is key to understanding the safeguarding of ICH. This article focuses mainly on the Jingxi fanhui, a national ICH festival in Beijing's western suburb. The entire area has been almost deserted for nearly 20 years, as the villagers are now dispersed in Beijing city. But every year during the traditional Lantern Festival days, former villagers still return to the abandoned villages to attend the parade ceremony, even though there is no real social network linking them. People are driven by different values, which are often diverse and contradictory, to participate in the ceremony. The common imagination of their community is rooted in a shared understanding of what heritage means to the groups. It's under the flag of national ICH that the consensus is reached, a sense of community is fostered, and the village festival continues, even after village life has ceased to exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a consensus on religious revival in China, it must be noted that popular religion and institutional religions such as Buddhism and Daoism adopt different strategies to survive the state's regulations. Many temples that used to facilitate the worship of local deities have to establish some form of intangible cultural heritage or emphasize the deity's history and folklore to de-religionize. During this process, a temple may earn its lawful place to survive, but risks its communality in the village. Based on studies of rural and urban temples in Henan and Shandong provinces, in this paper, I attempt to understand people's religiosity and how they conduct the human–deity exchange under social transformation. Popular religion is characterized by the pursuit of efficacy and its embeddedness in rural life. The traditional binary exchange with deities could be used to maintain a relationship with deities as well as offer urgent solutions, while three-party chains of exchange not only constitute a religious gift economy but also offer a religious agent to seek answers. I argue that temples are marginalized and excluded from village life, so people need to find new means by which to continue their religious practices beyond what the state sponsors, and this has led to the flowing of sacred places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, in scientific publications on the philosophy of economy, economic and agrarian sciences, attention to the philosophical aspects of the study of rural life and agricultural production has increased. This indicates that the philosophy of agrarian activity is formed as an integral part of the philosophy of economics and agrarian economy. The purpose of the article is to determine the scientific status of the philosophy of agriculture as a worldview basis for managing agrarian practice. The authors chose structural and systemic analysis and synthesis as the main methods of research, which allowed to isolate the concept of the philosophy of agriculture and to learn its essence. The article defines the philosophical aspect of the study of agricultural practice, which is an object of management in the context of social, cultural and economic life of people. Within the framework of philosophy, agriculture is considered not only as the basis of human livelihood, but also as a factor in the creation of civilization and culture. The study determined that the subject of the philosophy of agriculture is the relationship in the "man-nature-economy" system in the context of agrarian life. The theoretical value is that the philosophical problems of agriculture are systematized within the classical approach to the structure of philosophical knowledge (that is, ontology, epistemology, anthropology, praxeology of agriculture and socio-philosophical problems of agriculture are highlighted). General philosophical methodological approaches are formulated and defined, on the basis of which the philosophy of agriculture can develop as a meta-knowledge in relation to agrarian sciences and the practice of managing the agrarian sphere. The subject of the philosophy of agriculture is defined. The practical value lies in the fact that the research result can be included as a topic in educational courses in philosophical disciplines for students of higher education in the economic and agrarian profile of training. The results of the study enrich the information and analytical knowledge necessary for the comprehensive education of ecological culture, nature-centric economic behaviour of specialists in the agrarian sphere of production [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 20th century salt' major changes in the way of life in rural eastern Europe. Traditional folklore that had been preserved for centuries was also changing and disappearing. This paper examines one ritual: namely, a male peasant's walking on a contested land boundary with a clump of turf on his head. After an analysis of the ritual 's latest versions, recorded from a female speaker in a Carpatho-Rusyn village in Ukraine in 2017-2020. I examine the ritual in its historical perspective and discuss its differences from older versions in other traditions. The changes are attributed to two main factors: the abandonment of old land boundaries under collective farmland ownership, and the narrative's being shaped by contemporary rural female perceptions of magic, sin, and retribution. The results contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of changes in traditional rural folklore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research project was executed to demonstrate a new approach to increasing Sense of Belonging of individuals to groups to which they belong. The foundation of the approach lies in the application of concepts from a branch of math called Graph Theory. Graph Theory provides concepts and calculations that can be applied to understand the structures that arise when elements interact in a network. This project considers individual humans who interact when they come together to participate in some activity. In particular, we will apply this analytical methodology to UFM, Unaccompanied Foreign Minors, children who arrive without adult supervision or guidance from foreign countries to build a new life in their new country (in our case, Spain). One goal of the project is to increase the Sense of Belonging of these children to other children in the program with whom they do not share common characteristics (Age, Country of Origin, and Time Spent in Spain). We use the concept of "Diversity Experience Index", or DEI, that shows for any individual, the number of interactions they have had with other individuals with particular characteristics. A student's DEI values can then suggest future interactions in the program to achieve the goal of increasing their Sense of Belonging to other students in the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main task of the research is to clarify the main trends of demographic processes in the rural areas of Ukraine and to formulate proposals for the development and improvement of the demographic policy of Ukraine in the future. In the process of preparing the article, we used abstract-logical, mathematical-statistical, visualization and econometric methods of scientific research. According to the results of the grouping of the regions of Ukraine by the level of demographic safety, we found that most regions of Ukraine form a group of so-called "demographic danger". And if in 2009 there was a third of the regions in this group, then in 2021, about 50% showed demographic problems related to rural population caused by the decline of the population, including also the rural one and migration process with reduce the labor potential of rural areas, etc. In the article we substantiated that Ukraine, as a future member of the European Union, should move to the priority goals of the common agricultural policy (CAP), which include improving the quality of life in rural areas, diversifying the rural economy, improving the state of the environment and rural areas, and increasing the level of competitiveness of the agricultural industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed psychosocial influences on political life in the Basque Country according to Doise's theory on the articulation between the individual, the interindividual, groups, and society. Political-party experiences and evaluations of system legitimacy during elections (local, regional, general, and European) were considered. Party choice was linked to atheism and without-religion among Spanish progressive voters (Podemos); Christianity to Basque conservative nationalism (PNV); Basque identity to Basque progressive nationalism (EH-Bildu); and Spanish identity to conservativism (PP). On the whole, Basque parties' voters stressed more economy/administration and politicians' individual traits, while Spanish party voters focused more on civil/social rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries, many households lack basic household services and the provision of utility infrastructure is uneven across regions, leaving lagged regions behind. This lack of infrastructure in specific places can affect the welfare of its inhabitants. This paper aims to measure the influence of household basic services and sub-national infrastructure activities on individual subjective well-being in Ecuador. To determine how important the geographical context is for individual welfare, a hierarchical ordered logistic multilevel model is conducted. The results show that the individual heterogeneity is explained in 7% by the variation across cantons. There are 52 cantons that are above the average life satisfaction and 43 cantons below it. Findings regarding infrastructure evidence that sub-national utility projects and road infrastructure have a positive significant effect on the life satisfaction of rural residents whereas it is not significant for urban residents, indicating the diminishing marginal utility of urban people. Once a satiation point is achieved, marginal utility increases are lower. As for household services, access to the internet has a higher positive welfare effect than access to sewerage and access to water via pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we reflect on the changing trajectories of agrarian movements in Indonesia. In the two decades after independence, a left‐populist alliance of peasants, plantation workers, and other affiliate organizations achieved a mass following and were embraced by President Sukarno. In the aftermath of their violent destruction, the Suharto regime reordered agrarian movements into a single corporatist model. Suharto's downfall opened the way for the re‐emergence of agrarian organizations and movements. But two decades later, they remain small and fragmented, with little influence at the national level. In the changing conditions of rural life, and the increasingly authoritarian political context, progressive rural movements face dilemmas on questions both of their focus and goals and of tactical alliances with other progressive movements and political elites. A broader, more inclusive progressive populist alliance is a possibility, but with the continuing danger of co‐optation by forces of the populist right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]