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The paper analyzes the works related to the understanding of performative practices as a phenomenon of modern culture and art; it highlights the principal trends of the studies of this phenomenon. The reasons for the growing interest in the study of performative practices were clarified, the complexity and ambiguity of this phenomenon as a special socio-cultural communicative action, having the appearance of an "artistic event," a theatrical action, a dynamic symbolic action affecting all channels of human perception, was emphasized. The work is aimed at the analytical study of the essence of specificity of performative practices within the framework of various study optics from the standpoint of social and cultural anthropology and art history, in direct connection with social and cultural life, human emotions, cultural patterns, etc. The aim of the paper is to identify the theoretical definition of the "performative practices" concept in the contemporary humanities, which will allow solving the scientific problem of determining the essential specificity of performative practices as a modern cultural phenomenon. General scientific approaches, principles, and methods employed made it possible to consider the phenomenon of performative practices from different angles: theoretical interpretations of the basic forms of performative practices were compared using the comparative method; the use of the structural-functional method helped to determine the components creating an idea of the meaning of certain performance elements as the forms of manifestation of performative practices in modern culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing acknowledgment by segments of the global population that it is becoming extremely difficult to ignore the negative production externalities of industrial processes. In this regard, the related concept of "sustainability" has been gaining traction, with use of the word rising considerably since the 1990s. The term itself has been defined in many different ways, however, the core components are becoming common knowledge: economic, environmental, and social--informally referred to as profits, planet, and people. As Borden has aptly noted: "Sustainability ideas are growing and maturing at many levels worldwide". One way that people come to know about sustainable development and its importance is through media coverage of the movement via various projects and initiatives that have been proposed on a theoretical or conceptual basis, as well as those models which have already been concretely realized. One such project established in 2015 is Dubai's "Sustainable City', the emirate's first net-zero energy working model, which received attention in the world press. This paper investigates and compares the coverage that the Sustainable City has received in the global and local media by utilizing a content analysis methodology guided by framing theory. The research joins the discussion on issues regarding how the media discuss aspects of "sustainability" and how it takes hold within a society, whether it be by grassroots or government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a largely technical field, still guided by a biomedical model of health that seeks to isolate factors that cause injury. Despite a growing literature on organisational and managerial factors influencing occupational health, their full integration into the OHS concept has been slow. A broader understanding is still needed to recognise the restructuring of work and the link between well-being at work and management style. In the context of a rapidly changing world of work, increasing workforce diversity, and inequality, OHS needs to take account of the social sciences and humanities to broaden its reductionist vision. Occupational illnesses, distress, and suffering, especially in relation to relational or organisational issues, have no initial cause or specific ontology; they result from a long-standing process or repetitive relational pattern that needs to be exposed and understood in greater depth, considering contextual factors and dynamics. Using the authors' anthropological backgrounds and the basic principles of the double bind theory developed many decades ago by Gregory Bateson and his colleagues at the Palo Alto School of Communication, we propose a reflection on pragmatic paradoxes or double bind situations in the workplace (which can be briefly defined as the presence of contradictory or conflicting demands or messages), their potential impact on workers' health and well-being, and how to resolve them. This paper sought to explore the world of pragmatic paradoxes and double binds by discussing different categories, types, or forms of paradoxes/double binds that occur in the context of occupational health and their underlying mechanisms. It also includes a discussion of the possible link to the concept of super-diversity, as it too is associated with migration channels, employment, gendered flows, and local systems. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of this understanding for health professionals, researchers, and policymakers, from a perspective of promoting more holistic and context-sensitive interactional approaches to occupational health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of dialectical pluralism (DP) for nursing knowledge development. Nursing scholars have discussed ways of developing nursing knowledge, exploring the fit and relevance of various worldviews for knowledge development and examining the dynamic and perpetual processes of knowledge development. Scholars have argued that knowledge development occurs under a certain worldview to which the researcher adheres. Many nurses employ various worldviews, which can give rise to ontological and epistemological conflicts. DP can help nurses appreciate the diversity of worldviews and recognize the importance of implicit worldviews to generate more practical nursing knowledge. DP as a philosophical approach can enable nurses to communicate between diverse worldviews, become tolerant of conflicting differences, and develop an array of nursing knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophers and moral educators have examined the potential for narrative media (e.g., novels or films) to influence the development of practical wisdom (the forms of perception and reasoning necessary for virtuous living). Interest in studying this relationship using social scientific methodology is growing. One social science discipline with relevant insights that have not yet been explored is media psychology, a subdiscipline in communication that empirically studies the effects of narrative media. Drawing on media psychology research, this paper proposes a model of one process by which narratives can help us develop practical wisdom. Developing certain functions of practical wisdom involves increasing our sensitivity to types of morally relevant features (MRFs) that we normally miss (i.e., increasing the accessibility of those features). The proposed model explains how, under the right conditions, narratives can influence the accessibility of a given type of MRF. Implications for operationalizing narrative effects on practical wisdom are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports a longitudinal analysis of the topical and methodological development of Library and Information Science (LIS). Its focus is on the effects of researchers' disciplines on these developments. The study extends an earlier cross‐sectional study (Vakkari et al., Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2022a, 73, 1706–1722) by a coordinated dataset representing a content analysis of articles published in 31 scholarly LIS journals in 1995, 2005, and 2015. It is novel in its coverage of authors' disciplines, topical and methodological aspects in a coordinated dataset spanning two decades thus allowing trend analysis. The findings include a shrinking trend in the share of LIS from 67 to 36% while Computer Science, and Business and Economics increase their share from 9 and 6% to 21 and 16%, respectively. The earlier cross‐sectional study (Vakkari et al., Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 2022a, 73, 1706–1722) for the year 2015 identified three topical clusters of LIS research, focusing on topical subfields, methodologies, and contributing disciplines. Correspondence analysis confirms their existence already in 1995 and traces their development through the decades. The contributing disciplines infuse their concepts, research questions, and approaches to LIS and may also subsume vital parts of LIS in their own structures of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is no lack of peer-reviewed publications that focus on resumes, there is a lack of theory-based research in the genre. Most studies on resumes report observations rather than test theories to predict screener behaviors, and recent calls to action have advocated for more theory-based resume research. This paper answers the call and offers ways in which scholars can introduce theory into the existing body of knowledge in the resume genre by exploring research questions guided by the various philosophical foundations of the communication discipline. Future resume research should reference Craig's constitutive metamodel that offers more than 250 communication theories into seven philosophical foundations: semiotic, phenomenological, cybernetic, sociopsychological, sociocultural, critical, and rhetorical when designing studies. Exploring resume research questions based on communication theory enables scholars to use an applied research perspective across disciplinary boundaries and advance knowledge of resumes, a key component of organizational entry. This paper opens the door for scholars to contribute to this large and important question of organizational entry by outlining resume research questions that can be explored within each of the theoretical foundations of the communication discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media posts made by ordinary people are in most cases only viewed by a small number of friends and contacts. But some posts get thousands of likes, comments, and shares, a phenomenon often dubbed as going viral. This paper provides a content analysis of viral Facebook posts published by common people in Norway, and of the news coverage they received. The social media posts that go viral in Norway deal with a variety of topics, like health care, elderly care, bullying, traffic safety, unemployment, animal welfare, school, and education. Some of the viral posts were open job applications, and some were creative expressions. Many of the posts address political issues, and becomes part of the public debate. The posts are personal in their mode of address, often with an emotional appeal for civic engagement. They resemble the letters to the editor, though they bypass the editor and go directly to online self-publication, and in this way, moving parts of the public debate from the newspapers to social media. Most of the viral posts got news coverage, which in most cases focused more on the popularity cues and the virality of the post, and less on the topic the post addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“What is the role of universities nowadays?” is one of the questions that those of us who work there should be asking ourselves. Knowledge transfer has emerged as academia’s third mission and must drive social change and development. Specifically, this paper aims to analyze knowledge transfer’s significance in the social sciences and, more specifically, in communication sciences, by looking at the call for the six-year academic research period on knowledge transfer in 2018 and taking into account what is happening in other disciplines. The contributions of the Spanish university community in terms of knowledge transfer fall behind other countries in our field. Only approximately 1% of international patents result from Spanish research. This disparity between these two realms demonstrates the need to promote knowledge transfer as the third helix of the triple helix of an interactive and dynamic university model in communication with institutions and social agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the discourse on climate change by emphasising the imperative for inclusive engagement, particularly at the intersection of socio-economic challenges and climate impacts in Glasgow, Scotland. Despite recent shifts towards a ‘Just Transition’ and increased public engagement efforts, working-class voices remain marginalised. To address this gap, the paper first reviews existing literature on Climate Change Communication (CCC), examining some of the competing conceptualisations of barriers and public engagement and their policy implications, and more specifically, participatory policymaking and its role in engagement. Through doing so, the central debates of how public engagement with climate change ought to be pursued will be established, and to what degree this can be understood in the context of developing engagement with working-class people. Subsequently, it proposes a novel framework synthesising insights from Lorenzoni, Sutton, and Tobin utilising an ecological Marxist perspective that aims to address barriers to climate change engagement among the working class.

Context: Communication methods have been trialled to promote staff-family relations and facilitate person-centred care for residents living in long-term care homes. A review and synthesis of the common methods will inform the development of staff-family communication methods, policy and best practice guidelines. Objectives: 1) synthesise and summarise common communication methods, and types(s) of delivery, used for staff-family communication in long-term care homes; and 2) identify any challenges that impacted the implementation of the communication method(s). Methods: An integrative review was employed to incorporate papers with diverse research designs. It involved a comprehensive database and grey literature search, and study selection based on inclusion criteria. Data from included studies were extracted, coded and categorised by common communication method, delivery type(s) and challenges; studies were assessed for quality. Findings: A total of 3,183 potential papers were retrieved from seven international databases. Twenty-four original papers from six countries meeting inclusion criteria were reviewed and assessed for quality (M = 30; SD = 3.8). Common communication methods (structured education, meetings and takeaway resources) and challenges to implementation (confusion, misunderstanding and disagreement; lack of time; and technological difficulties) were identified and summarised. Limitations: The exclusion of papers published more than 20 years ago, geographical concentration of studies in high-income countries, and absence of stakeholder consultation may limit the generalisability and depth of the findings. Implications: Staff professional development and education, technology training and support, and accessibility of information in pamphlets and resources for family are crucial for facilitating staff-family communication in long-term care homes.

Investor Relations (IR) has gained prominence globally and is now considered to be a major contributor to corporate value. For companies to thrive in the global environment, they need to build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with their primary stakeholder, the stockholder. Consequently, scholars have argued that for IR to maximize its benefit to companies, the profession needs to shift from one-way asymmetrical communication to two-way symmetrical communication with stockholders. Although scholars have recommended this shift, there is a paucity of studies that have explored whether two-way symmetrical communication has been embraced in IR practice. Using the two-way symmetrical model of communication as its framework, and a qualitative methodology consisting of in depth interviews, documents analysis, and qualitative content analysis, this paper assessed how Investor Relations professionals in South Africa use communication to maintain relationships with stockholders. The findings of the study show that most IR professionals in South Africa are using what we term a bridged approach, consisting of one-way and two-way symmetrical communication, to maintain relationships with stockholders. Evidence gleaned from the study further indicates that the nature of communication between IR practitioners and stockholders has broadened beyond financial issues to include engagement on non-financial issues. These findings do not only show the existence of a paradigm shift in IR practice in South Africa, they also suggest the need by IR as a field to maintain constant dialogue with Public Relations theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper examines the relationship between communication and child rights. Effective communication is crucial for ensuring that children’s rights are protected and promoted. Through communication, children are able to express their views and needs, which is key to realizing their right to freedom of expression and participation. Communication also plays a critical role in protecting children from abuse and neglect. When children are able to communicate with trusted individuals, they can report any illegal actions and protect themselves from further harm. In education, communication is essential for realizing children’s right to education. When children have the opportunity to communicate with their teachers and other school community members, they can learn in a better environment and actively engage in the learning process. The paper is realized in accordance with the communication which is essential for realizing children’s rights in various areas and it is important to provide children with opportunities to communicate and express themselves.

The aim of this study is to reveal the role of internal organizational communication in motivating employees in public service organizations. Data were collected from 249 surveyed employees, in the mobile telecommunications sector in Kosovo, specifically in the Vala mobile company. The collected data was analyzed by using the SPSS system. The study found that information sharing had the greatest effect on employee motivation, followed by employee involvement in decision-making. This paper can be useful for managers and heads to create an organizational culture that promotes both motivation and performance. This paper is unique as it examines the links between organizational communication, motivation, and performance.

Controlling the pandemic has necessitated governments across the world to implement behavior change agenda, through new policies, laws, and public communication strategies. The concept of “psychological governance” has therefore been crucial to curtailing the pandemic. Psychological governance is the application of insights from behavioral and psychological sciences to public policy for the purpose of influencing behavior at the individual, group, and population levels. Similarly, a macropsychology perspective aims to understand and shape behavior at the population level, through the application of psychology to factors that influence the settings and conditions of our lives, such as policies, institutions, systems, and structures. Psychological governance and a macropsychology perspective are key to effectively supporting pandemic preparedness, coping, and recovery at the population level. In this paper, the role of psychological governance in responding to COVID-19 is considered. This paper also examines the role of several macropsychological factors in the pandemic, including heroism, trust in government, culture, and equitable access and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The given study focuses on the challenges and difficulties of children with disabilities from the point of view of their parents. The roles of parents, cooperation and support of the school as well as the use of suggestions by parents are topics which are going to be discussed and elaborated in this paper. The methodology used to conduct this study is related to the literature review as well as in conducting the semi-structured interviews. With regard to the review of literature, laws, decisions, normative acts for the time period from March 2020 - February 2021 were actually analyzed. Participants are 26 parents who have at least one child with disabilities that has participated in online lessons, during the period of isolation due to Pandemic or this academic year. The cities where the interviews were conducted are Tirana and Durrës, two cities with the largest population in the country. The results of the study related to parenting roles showed that half of the parents do not provide active support for children due to long working hours, lack of trust in the online learning process, lack of motivation, etc.Regarding the time they spent each day supporting the children, most of them answered that they spent 15-30 minutes a day. The results regarding communication and support from the school showed that most parents and children were instructed on how to conduct online learning, but most of them had no assistant teachers other than the class teacher and no specific therapies were offered as well. Some children have experienced a low academic achievement during the period they have been learning online. Actually, all parents agree that if they were offered a choice between online teaching, classroom teaching or alternating teaching they would undoubtedly choose classroom teaching. The challenges and difficulties listed by the parents relate to; lack of concentration, difficulty in understanding the tasks assigned, difficulty in learning, lack of socialization, lack of internet access, lack of computer, etc.Recommendations listed by parents based on their experience with their children are as follows; the online learning schedule should be discussed and agreed with the parents as some of them are at work, assistant teachers shall be present, use of more efficient teaching tools, to divide the students into smaller groups to enable the concentration of students with different abilities, etc. We must keep in mind that the situation created due to the Pandemic requires immediate decisions, but on the other hand it is necessary that these decisions shall be taken in compliance with the physical conditions of Albanian Education. The education of children with disabilities needs support from relevant institutions to maximize their inclusion in education and allow them to reach their own potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. The paper aims at discovering stylistic and grammatical peculiarities in tourism discourse based on VisitBritain.com text corpus; analyzing its application scope and mission; specifying “tourism discourse” as a notion. Methodology. Used in the paper are general scientific methods (synthesis, generalization), analysis of the text corpus, method of linguistic analysis. Results. The issue of tourism discourse as a separate unit, not a subtype of advertising discourse, remains highly disputable nowadays. The present paper analyses the theoretical basis of notions of “discourse” and “tourism discourse”; determines the levels and communication means in tourism; substantiates the hypothesis on multi-component and multi-modal structure of tourism discourse as a linguistic phenomenon. In the practical part of the research, the author draws special attention to the specifics of the English tourism discourse in terms of typology, lexicology and morphology. The paper concludes by saying that tourism discourse is different from advertising one as well as requires further investigation into the issue. Practical implications. The results presented in the article can be used both in theory and applications, i.e., further inquiry into the pragmatic constituent of tourism discourse and its interdisciplinarity; compilation of corpora of tourist texts in the English language; adaptation of the English tourism discourse for present-day realities and addressees’ demands.

Purpose – The paper aims to clarify the multivariate effects of follower communication apprehension (CA) and demographic dissimilarity on follower perceptions of the leader–follower relationship quality (i.e. measured by leader–member exchange (LMX) theory). This study examined the possible mediating effects of follower CA on the relationship between demographic dissimilarity and LMX. Design/methodology/approach – Research was collected from self-report ratings of one member of the dyad; several proactive techniques were utilized to reduce common method variance in the development and administration of the survey instrument. In total, 260 (N = 260) full-time hospitality industry employees participated in the study. Findings – The results of this study indicate demographic dissimilarity has minimal effect on LMX and CA. However, the results indicated that follower CA was negatively related to follower perceptions of LMX quality. In addition, the results indicated that tenure working with the supervisor was negatively related to follower CA and positively related to follower perceptions of LMX quality. Research limitations/implications – Research results may lack generalizability, and causality cannot be confirmed. Future studies utilizing longitudinal designs and/or data collected from each member of the dyad may provide support for current findings. Practical implications – This paper includes implications for understanding how situational characteristics influence follower CA and perceptions of LMX to encourage supervisors to increase communication with new subordinates, especially during the organizational acculturation process, thus reducing turnover. Furthermore, the significant relationship between age dissimilarity and CA offers practical implications for managing and celebrating generational differences in the workplace and bridging the gap between generations by maximizing communication between supervisors and subordinates. Communication is an essential consideration in the hospitality industry linked to creativity, relationship building and enhanced service experiences. Ultimately, this paper provides guidance for leaders to build sustainable, positive relationships with subordinates through more effective communication and build more inclusive service-based organizations. Originality/value – This paper contributes to communication and leadership management practices by addressing four major problems: (1) limited research on situational characteristics that inhibit LMX quality, (2) limited research on communication variables as antecedents to LMX, (3) minimal research on the relationship between CA and LMX and (4) non-existent research on CA as a mediating variable in the relationship between demographic dissimilarity and LMX.

A clear and unambiguous rendering of spatial relations is the key cognitive function of communication. Spatial relationships reflect the categories and experience shared by all people. The paper introduces the first-of-its-kind attempt to describe the dual spatial orientation of the speaker in virtual reality as depending on two factors: the communicative situation and the gender. Dual spatial orientation combines egocentric, allocentric, or geocentric orientations and their varieties. The combination depends on various factors. The experiment in virtual environment involved 24 informants and five scenarios (scenes) with different communicative parameters. It yielded 725 responses with combinations of double orientations, which went through the IS Semograph. The combination of allocentric and geocentric orientation domineered; the extra-linguistic gender factor and some communicative parameters affected the frequency of combinations of dual spatial orientation. The core of the speaker’s dual spatial orientation in virtual reality combined allocentric and geocentric orientations to the topos of GE \ T + AL and AL + GE \ T.

Almost four billion people in the world use the internet which includes forms of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc. Along with the gifts of such developed communication technologies, many hardships and future problems have emerged. Misinformation leaks, internet trolls, and the newer trend of cyber-nationalism all come with these advanced forms of technology. The purpose of this paper is to define what these negative consequences mean for us, and what our government is doing with this new power. To be able to grasp a scope of what is happening, the history of the internet and cyber-nationalism need to be distinguished as well as showing different forms of use and how they affect us in our daily lives. Looking through the eyes of a political geographer it is important to see if cyber-nationalism deserves its own category yet as a topic of study, and how this is similar or different to the use of propaganda in the past such as World War II. This paper concludes with final thoughts on the internet and cyber-nationalism, and future research possibilities that help to interpret the use of cyber-nationalism and further its study.

The paper aims to identify the narrative communicative resources and messages spread by brands within the background of a global pandemic. This study compares two samples of advertising spots broadcast in Spain: one during the COVID-19 lockdown period and the other selected from the last de-escalation phase of the health crisis. A content analysis of a compendium of 125 commercials was proposed. The main finding is the social function adopted during lockdown in order to encourage the population with positive and resilient messages while during the de-escalation the brands recover their traditional commercial role and, do not even reflect reality with the persistence of the outbreak in the images and discourse. In fact, it showed a first phase focused on branding and a second phase when the population was urged to consume. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown a clear need for brands to adapt to an environment that has dramatically changed overnight. Practical Implications The paper includes implications for brands for sharing common support for emotional and psychological well-being in health crisis. This social function could improve their reputation and positioning globally.

The main objective of the present paper is to systematize the contributions of more than 15 15 years teamwork around the understanding of communication as a field of complex inter and transdisciplinary reflections, built on the research practice of the Center for Cuban and Caribbean Social Studies “Dr. José A. Portuondo ”, from the Universidad de Oriente (Cuba). To systematize the results, a large volume of data contained in 49 undergraduated and postgraduated investigations, 60 scientific articles, 8 books, 15 book chapters, as well as the empirical experience accumulated in dozens of communities, cultural projects, social institutions was analyzed., local governments, unions, companies, scientific events among others, where research results have been socialized and introduced. A complex conception of communication of a socio-anthropological and micro-cultural nature is proposed, which is already located in the analysis of the media, cultural management, socio-cultural relations, politics and local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misunderstandings often lead to accidents, delays, missed opportunities, waste, and conflict in organizations. However, on occasion, they can also lead to beneficial outcomes, at least for one of the parties involved. Prior scholarship on productive misunderstandings and strategic ambiguity illustrates this with a range of examples in diverse contexts, but there is no coherent framework to understand the conditions under which misunderstandings can be beneficial. This paper elucidates three mechanisms — establishing truce, encouraging search, and creating resonance — through which misunderstandings can create positive outcomes, as well as the different boundary conditions for each mechanism.

Deviant workplace behavior violates organizational standards and has the potential to hurt either the entire organization or specific members of the organization. It is a serious and present problem in the workplace. Workplace culture have been linked to deviant workplace behavior however, there has been a scarcity of research and reviews on the impact of workplace culture on deviant workplace behavior. Scopus, Sage, MEDLINE and Web of Science Journals were used to look for terms relating to workplace culture (workplace culture, organizational culture) as well as terms related to deviant workplace behavior (deviant behavior, deviances). Original research, samples, or gendered employee subsamples were considered for this evaluation of workplace culture that have an impact on deviant workplace behavior, and the research must be completed in English. This evaluation has 19 publications that passed the eligibility criteria. This review's results showed that deviant workplace behavior is significantly influenced by workplace culture with different interpretation of culture and measurement used. These findings are explored in light of existing gaps in the literature and fresh research opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Consumer behavior has evolved over the years, leading to changes in the perception of consumption and the emergence of trends that help create a profile of the modern consumer. The first two decades of the 21st century brought significant changes in consumer behavior, under the influence of the Internet and social media. The purpose of this paper is to present the profiles of Generation Z consumers, and to see if the TikTok application plays an important role in brands’ communication with Generation Z. Virtual communication has become widespread; this poses a challenge for brands, especially among the younger generation. The study shows that as age increases, the time a person has had an account on TikTok decreases, as does the appreciation of this application.

Efforts worldwide have sought to lessen the agricultural and societal impact of the fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) mitigation in Kenya, Nepal, and Bangladesh by safeguarding affected regions' food crops and livelihoods while preventing the spread of FAW to nearby areas. However, efforts to communicate and gain support for FAW control methods among local populations can have limited impacts. This study qualitatively explores "design looping" as part of three Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) campaigns in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Kenya for increasing community support for FAW mitigation. Such an approach not only potentially extends the reach and scalability of FAW control methods but also contributes to meeting Sustainable Development Goals for food security and community well-being. Findings of productive advantages for "design looping" in this study include (1) increased participatory access by project stakeholders and beneficiaries, (2) flexibility, as cost-effective and potentially continuous opportunities to refine ICT4D messaging to meet project goals, and (3) bi-directional learning between project producers and message recipients for improved message deployment. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed. Plain Language Summary: Using adaptive methods to design insect pest mitigation information Getting local people to participate in protecting food crops and livelihoods by stopping the spread of crop pests like fall armyworm (FAW) presents challenges. This study looks at how "design looping" was used in three information campaigns in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Kenya aimed at enabling more community support for fighting FAW using Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). This design method can increase the range and effectiveness of FAW control and strengthen food security and community well-being. Results of the study found that "design looping" had several benefits: (1) it allowed more people to be involved in the design process, (2) it was highly cost-effective and allowed for adjustments and adaptation of the messaging to different contexts, and (3) it fostered better learning and message sharing between the message creators and those receiving the messages. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postmodern organizations strive to cultivate open innovation systems to foster product innovation and commercialization. Cultural dynamics can be a massive obstacle in flourishing the inbound and outbound open innovation in many organizations. However, little is known about the effect of different types of culture on the open innovation dimensions. This research aimed to investigate the role of cultural subtleties in nurturing inbound and outbound open innovation in the organizations. A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected from a random sample of 231 managers from the automotive industry. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses using Smart PLS. The results indicated that hierarchy culture, associated with formal rules and regulations, negatively affects the inbound and outbound open innovation. The Market culture has a positive relationship with inbound and outbound open innovation while adhocracy culture could positively impact the inbound open innovation only. On the other hand, clan culture has a negative effect on the outbound open innovation. We concluded that the organizational culture focused on internal integrations is more suitable for outbound open innovation, and the type of organizational culture focused on external differentiation is more likely to support inbound open innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While climate services for small-scale farmers are gaining recognition for contributing to adaptation and resilience to climate variability and change, their provision in developing countries remains a critical challenge. Effective climate services consider why and how farmers of varied socioeconomic background make relevant decisions avoiding the traditional prescriptive forms of transfer that merely focus on delivering climate information. Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa shows that climate services for agriculture generates transformations in how farmers access and use climate information, as well as changes in farmer decision-making. In this paper, we address the question of whether the same effect is also seen in Latin America, where farming systems, farming decisions, socioeconomic contexts and non-climate constraints are very different to those of Africa. A group of 209 farmers in the dry corridor in Honduras was studied. We find that 98% of the trained farmers did uptake and use the climate information, and some 73% expressed that the agroclimatic information was key to the success of their harvest despite the challenging 2019 season. Some 43% of the farmers made changes in farming practices. In particular, farmers changed the crop they grew, the crop and land management, the planting dates, inputs and crop varieties. These changes reportedly had positive effects on their food security, and income. These findings support the hypothesis that Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) plays a positive role in providing effective climate services in Central America, improving decision-making, and enabling farmers to make their own decisions based on the analysis of information and their demands regardless of their level of literacy. We pose that participatory climate services in agriculture can catalyse processes of long-term transformation in farming systems, notably through lifting farmers out of poverty and food insecurity and providing an integrated approach to make informed decisions in the face of climatic variation.

AbstractThe European Climate Pact is one constitutive element of the European Green Deal, which has the ambition of making the European Union (EU) climate neutral by 2050. It is a particularly intriguing measure since it is designed as a format for volunteering, known as European Climate Pact Ambassadors, whom the EU Commission expects to inform members of their communities and networks about climate change and to inspire and support climate action. Each Pact Ambassador is presented on a dedicated website hosted by the EU Commission, which means that this programme is highly personalized. With this paper, we address Pact Ambassadors who do not work as policy professionals and strive to offer them guidance on navigating their mandate. In essence, we invite them to personalize the mandate and to assume those roles and carry out those activities that they feel comfortable with and which align with the overarching goals and principles of the ambassadors’ programme.

Through an interdisciplinary literature review, based on empirical evidence, this research approaches different ways of interpreting silence(s) in three qualitative research methods—ethnography, focus groups and interviews—which, by their nature, are conducive to practices that resort to silence as units of meaning. The findings presented in this paper demonstrate how, in different data collection techniques, it is possible to rethink not only the whole conception of what silence is but also what silence can (or cannot) help to express. From a qualitative perspective in the social sciences and humanities, silence can in itself be a means of expression and a valid communication resource.

This study examines the factors affecting media researchers' selection of media research problems. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of Arab media researchers were conducted, followed by applying a 22-item questionnaire on a sample of 247 from Arab media researchers. The impact of internal/subjective factors and external/objective factors, on the selection of research problems by Arab media researchers, and their perceptions were investigated. Findings revealed that internal factors are perceived to have a higher impact than external factors. However, external factors are perceived to have a stronger negative impact than positive ones. Findings also raise several issues regarding scientific considerations, institutional requirements, and socio-political conditions that lead researchers to either avoid certain topics or change the angle of their view for their research. The study proposed a theoretical framework regarding the process of selecting research problems in the media field of Arab countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dealing with opaque algorithms, the frequent overlap between transparency and explainability produces seemingly unsolvable dilemmas, as the much-discussed trade-off between model performance and model transparency. Referring to Niklas Luhmann's notion of communication, the paper argues that explainability does not necessarily require transparency and proposes an alternative approach. Explanations as communicative processes do not imply any disclosure of thoughts or neural processes, but only reformulations that provide the partners with additional elements and enable them to understand (from their perspective) what has been done and why. Recent computational approaches aiming at post-hoc explainability reproduce what happens in communication, producing explanations of the working of algorithms that can be different from the processes of the algorithms.

This is an analysis of how cross-border minorities manage to communicate and provide humanitarian support to those who are in major difficulties in the context of the war in Ukraine. Therefore, in this paper, I propose an analysis of the way conflicts arise and unfold in a multicultural society, through the lens of the problems related to such a society, namely the issue of minorities and the idea of tolerance, and let's show how these conflicts are managed internationally.

This paper focuses on the analysis of information on environmental catastrophes published in the digital editions of different national and regional newspapers, from a theoretical perspective that situates them as possible amplifiers of the social perception of risk or generators of alarm among the population in situations of risk or catastrophe. Within this framework, the general objective of the research was to find out to what extent the analysed media (a) transmit specialized, accurate, truthful and contrasted information that moves away from the characteristics of sensationalist news; (b) are useful sources of information for the public in the face of the possibility that they may act as generators of confusion and biased perceptions; and (c) show “communication gaps” in their news in relation to two cases of forest fires in Spain: the fires in Galicia in 2017 and those in Gran Canaria in 2019. The results obtained highlight the need for the media to make an effort to transmit truthful and useful communication for citizens in situations of crisis or catastrophe.

Gunther Kress's multimodal and social semiotic theory of communication has moved beyond the realm of linguistics, which originally framed his work, and has reached out to inform other fields, such as those of education, museum studies, as well as the humanities and social sciences more broadly. This article brings together our insights in relation to a concept from Gunther Kress's theory, that of design. Drawing from our research, we reflect on Kress's conceptualisation of design in social semiotics and discuss how this idea has inspired us to advance research across the domains of formal learning in schools, informal learning and communication in museums, and in everyday communication and social interaction. We consider that the contribution of design is to challenge the boundaries of concepts such as 'competence', 'interpretation' and 'critique', associated respectively with the dominant discourses and practices in the worlds of education, museums and everyday communication and research practice. We look at design as: (1) learning; (2) transformation of resources; and (3) an engaged and engaging social semiotic research, and argue that as an interpretative resource it enables us to move beyond the limitations posed by institutions such as schools, museums and academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Allan Kellehear exploring the benefits and challenges of caring for a deceased person's body at home. Topics include appointed to the Chair of Palliative Care at La Trobe University and created now understood to be the public health approach to palliative care; and primarily obsessed with symptom management and health services research.

Communicative competence in the realities of the modern world is one of the basic skills defining not only the structure of the communicative personality of the digital age, but also a meaningful criterion of socialization, social interactivity within society. At present, the society is undergoing an intensive restructuring, not only in terms of system functioning and institutional transformation, but also in terms of way of interaction, which signals the active establishment of a digital society, as a new stage in civilizational development. This reality is due to the acceleration of the development of digital technologies, the implication of digital processes in all areas of public procedure, and the significant impact of digitization on human communication capabilities caused by spreading of communicative area. This article attempts to consider the digital society from social-philosophy way in a communicative point of view at the level of its structural component – the subject and its characteristics of communicative competence. Background. The digital society is an entirely new stage in the development of mankind, and therefore the logical action is to conduct a comprehensive study of it with a view to a thorough, detailed understanding of the essence, structure, properties and characteristics. A study of communication at the level of the subject within a digital society gives an idea of the characteristics of a modern digital society. Purpose. The article considers communication in a digital society from the point of view of analysis of its producers - individual subjects developing the skills of formation of communicative acts of a new type in a virtual – digital environment, namely communicative competence in digital communication. Materials and Methods. A number of research papers on the theory of digital society, the identification of its basic properties and characteristics, and the provisions on the essence of digital processes were used as research materials; collected views on the vision of communication of the modern type-digital communication. The analysis used social and philosophical reflexes, namely the analytical method. Results. As results, we can voice a number of identified modifications in the field of signs of communicative competence of the modern person of the digitalized society. In this case, we are talking about the abolition of language means used to convey the meaning in a communication act in favor of lexical substitutions with graphic symbols, which confirms the presence of clippiness of thinking and perception. The absence of direct communicative contact practically eliminates the emotional component of communication, or distorts it. The semantic side of communication is distorted and leads to a loss of understanding and empathy. Violation of the cognitive-epiric aspect of the personality shows the deformation of the process of transferring moral values and ethical guidelines, behaviors, which distorts the system of ideas about the surrounding reality, identity and mechanisms of subject-object relationships. The pragmatic level of communication is modified due to subjective situational experience, which is formed mainly in the space of digital reality, which creates difficulties in non-mediated communication. During the goal of the communicative process itself in the virtual-digital environment, a shift occurs in terms of ignoring objective facts, rules and laws, or trivially devaluing the opinion of another communicant, which nurtures nihilism, selfishness, and also leads to the destruction of the entire communication process as a whole. Practical implications. A well-known fact is the mutually agreed connection between society and communication in terms of relaying the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the studied object and subject, their coevolution. The results of the study can be used in further socio-philosophical understanding of the structures and characteristics of digital society in general, and communication in particular. Analyzing the communicant from the point of view of its specific properties, in this case – the skill of communication in the conditions of digitalization, it is possible to form signs of a modern social device through transformation of communication.

From birth to school is a period in which the child needs help and support in acquiring socio-emotional competencies in the relationships of all members of the community, because in that period the preconditions are created for the successful functioning of the child in the social and emotional context. Important support for the child in shaping and creating possible situations where socio-emotional relationships are established and these relationships are imposed as an unavoidable factor in the process of socialization and the establishment of emotional stability and security, are the family and the educational institutions. The paper will discuss the quality and the need for support from parents and preschool institutions, in a manner to encourage, realize and develop children's socio-emotional competencies as an integral part of the preschool curriculum, the challenges and perceptions of children's parents, communication between parents and kindergarten teachers, information to the parents about the work of the kindergarten, the participation of parents in parent meetings and the participation of parents in daily activities in the kindergarten.

Institutional child sexual abuse is a concern for children, families, and society. Limited research has explored how school leaders and municipalities handle cases of sexual abuse in educational settings. This case study examines how a municipality managed the suspicion that 19 toddlers were sexually abused by an educator at several Early Childhood Education and Care institutions (ECEC). A nine-member crisis management team was formed that included key persons from the department of education and social welfare. During the initial phase of the investigation, only the team members were informed about the suspected abuse. In individual interviews, team members were asked how the team was organised and how their plans were implemented. In addition, they were asked about their experiences of participating in the crisis management. Three themes were identified: the set-up of the crisis management, the implementation of the crisis management plan, and important experiences. The crisis team emphasised that a child perspective rather than a general crisis perspective was applied and this approach was operationalised by key people in the educational and social welfare sectors. This paper highlights the impact of this case on the respondents as well as implications for the educational sector.

Background: Preventing type 2 diabetes is a national priority; one aspect is the identification and active management of 'prediabetes' through lifestyle change. Aim: To explore what primary care clinicians understood by 'prediabetes', how they communicated this diagnosis to people, how they delivered lifestyle advice, and their views on barriers to lifestyle change. Design & setting: Three focus groups were undertaken with 25 individuals from primary care teams (GPs, nurses, and healthcare assistants) in Newham, a deprived and ethnically diverse part of London, UK. Method: Recordings were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically before integrating social and behavioural science theories. Results: Focus groups participants described four main influences on their management of prediabetes in the consultation: social determinants, clinical aspects of diagnosis and management, patient motivation and behaviour change, and long-term care. Since most felt unable to address social determinants such as poverty, discussions with patients tended to focus on attempts to change individual behaviours and achieve particular numerical targets, with limited attention to the social context in which behaviours would play out. Conclusion: Type two diabetes prevention efforts in general practice may fail to address the upstream causes of this disease. A narrow focus on numerical targets and decontextualised behaviours overlooks the social complexity of human behaviour and lifestyle choices. Within the consultation, the authors recommend that greater attention is paid to discussing the social context and meaning of particular behaviours. Beyond the consultation, collaboration between primary care clinicians, public health bodies, and local governments is required to address community-level constraints to behaviour change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Netherlands, the challenges of the multicultural society are high on the political agenda. At present 24.4% of the Dutch population has an immigration background of which 13.9% has a non-western migration background and almost 50% of all the people with a migration background are second-generation migrants born in the Netherlands. However, today's Dutch multicultural society is associated with a complex range of challenges linked with cultural and religious diversity. This article investigates how news media in the Netherlands facilitated the making of the licitness of xenophobic rhetoric of the two main Dutch populist right-wing parties Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) and Forum voor Democratie (FvD) during the Provincial Elections in March 2019. I conclude that these rising political extremist movements dominate the immigration debate and are accountable for the making of the licit social resentment against particularly non-western immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]