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This article focuses on the role of large-scale infrastructure projects in constructing a new Turkey, involving economic, political, and cultural transformation led by the conservative Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi - JDP) with a focus on the post-2010 period. This research takes a case study approach focusing on two newly inaugurated infrastructure projects of the JDP in Istanbul: The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Istanbul Airport. Through analyses of (1) speeches, discourses, and performances of political elites during the projects' ceremonial events and (2) the technologies, aesthetics, and architectural designs used for the projects, this article argues that infrastructure projects are not only aimed to anchor (present and) future for civilization but also, to certain degrees, revive particular pasts. Hence, the paper contends that large-scale infrastructure projects in Istanbul aim at resurrecting an imaginary of the glory of the Ottoman Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During China's transition from pre-modern to modern society, book theft, as a form of social deviance, reflected the multifaceted cultural metaphors of books in modern Chinese social life. The shift from the notion that "common thieves do not steal books" to book theft as a representation of cultural power struggles exemplifies the media cultural transformation in modern Chinese society. Contemporary attitudes towards book theft reveal complex tensions between economic order, publishing supply and demand, social mentality, cultural capital, knowledge power, media discourse, and public opinion during this period of societal change. In this context, book theft can be seen as a dual phenomenon, embodying both a clever and sophisticated act that challenges dominant norms and values on one hand, and a form of rebellion that seeks to redistribute power and knowledge, akin to the legendary outlaw Robin Hood, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe rapid increase of antibiotic-resistant pathogens is severely limiting our current treatment possibilities. An important subset of the resistance mechanisms conferring antibiotic resistance have public effects, allowing otherwise susceptible bacteria to also survive antibiotic treatment. As susceptible bacteria can survive treatment without bearing the metabolic cost of producing the resistance mechanism, there is potential to increase their relative frequency in the population and, as such, select against resistant bacteria. Multiple studies showed that this altered selection for resistance is dependent on various environmental and treatment parameters. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of their most important findings and describe the main factors impacting the selection for resistance. In-depth understanding of the driving forces behind selection can aid in the design and implementation of alternative treatments which limit the risk of resistance development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the increasing trend of inter-Asian migration within China, this qualitative research explores the socio-cultural and technological implications of the de-territorial and digitally-mediated acculturation journeys of Pakistani higher education students in China. A comprehensive analysis of the polymedia experiences of Pakistani higher education students reveals paradoxical trends. The research findings illustrate China's controlled approach to cultural and technological diversity. The study highlights the dominance of Chinese apps, notably WeChat, and VPN services in strengthening co-national bonds, fostering transnational connections, and cultivating cultural belonging. Conversely, the article contends that the students' polymedia interactions demonstrate China's evolving cultural and technological landscape. For instance, digital access, availability, and literacy empower sojourners to reinforce their ethnic identities and communities, promote increased usage of US-based digital platforms, and further accelerate the adoption of the English language within China's socio-cultural landscape. Understanding these digitally influenced creative pathways and information ecologies presents a significant opportunity for Chinese institutions to foster stronger connections with the expanding South Asian student communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that culture involves some form of transmission from one generation to the next, the question of its origins must necessarily involve activities that do not depend on its pre-existence. Dancing is significant in being simultaneously an individual and a spontaneous activity, dependent on biological underpinnings that are instinctive, for example, in human children. It is also a phenomenon present in almost all human societies and cultures as an activity that can exist both within and without specific cultural context. In this paper, we examine dance from the point of view of cultural evolution, both as a spontaneous activity independent of any pre-existing culture and as transmitted patterns of behaviour within and between generations. The paper offers ideas as background to a model which we then briefly outline in our conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution" by Kim Sterelny explores the origins and survival of human cooperation in an unequal world. Sterelny argues that early human societies were egalitarian and cooperative, but inequality emerged and stabilized over time. The book examines the role of culture in solving the challenges of cooperation, such as the generation and distribution of benefits. Sterelny presents a four-phase model of human cooperation, tracing its evolution from the suppression of dominance hierarchies to the establishment of sedentary societies with hierarchies. The book provides a detailed and empirically grounded account of human social evolution, drawing on a range of disciplinary fields. However, some caveats include the need for further exploration of factors such as cooperative breeding and the limits of ethnographic analogy. Overall, "The Pleistocene Social Contract" offers a comprehensive and insightful analysis of the evolution of human cooperation. [Extracted from the article]

Populism and institutions have been characterized as antithetical to each other by Ernesto Laclau. Yet the Latin American pink tide has offered many instances of left populism in power, with Rafael Correa's Ecuador representing a prime example of the enmeshment between populist rhetoric and technocratic construction. Some accounts have emerged to make room for the latter, while ultimately failing to capture much of the dynamics at play. One of the chief questions is that the simple enlargement of the State cannot be taken as a trustworthy indicator of the stability and regularity of the new institutions. In order to secure their sustainability, these need to be propped up by accountable governance and a broader cultural transformation. By neglecting such aspects, left populism in Ecuador has left behind a mixed record in terms of institutional legacy. From a normative viewpoint, populism is thus conceived as a transitional device which can usher in a new institutionality, but, if some of its 'vices' are excessively protracted, it may be indicative of its failure to instil a new hegemony and its institutional achievements may be subject to a swift dismantling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite his producing voluminous writings beyond Utopia, scholarly consensus seems to be that if we want to understand the political thought of Thomas More, we must turn to this 'little book'. This approach, however, has yielded little consensus about how to categorise More as a political thinker, as Utopia is notoriously and intentionally enigmatic. This article attempts to generate a portrait of More as a political thinker by going beyond an investigation of Utopia alone and taking into consideration those texts often overlooked or rejected by scholars, primarily his polemical and religious writings. Doing so provides an outline of More as a thinker concerned with themes of natural and artificial inequality, popular authority and representation and, at the least, justifies the exercise of reading More's work beyond Utopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper unpacks the relationship between local culture and agency to enhance our understanding of local variations of agency. The paper studies two former old industrial places in Sweden; one place characterized by an entrepreneurial culture (Borås), the other with a company town culture (Kiruna). Both cases experienced structural crisis around 1970s. A study period of more than 30 years is used to analyse actions and actors present in different phases of development, using 38 semi-structured interviews. The concepts of change agency and reproductive agency are used to analyse agentic patterns. Cultural transformation is mapped using values, heroes, symbols and rituals. The paper finds that the entrepreneurial culture is an enabling condition for change agency, whereas the company town culture is hampering change agency. The paper also finds that lock-ins can continue to affect actors after a crisis and that opportunities for change agency therefore is actor-specific, i.e. that local agency varies between actors and over time. Reproductive agency is present in both regions to maintain the cultural identity, but the company town culture is more resistant to institutional changes. Yet, both local cultures have changed, and in both cases the changes have opened for more change agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human culture is built upon nature to help humans adapt to their environment – first natural, but later natural-cultural. Cultural practices are aimed at aiding survival in changing environments, and in different settings they meet different environmental pressures, causing later changes in trajectories. According to cultural evolutionism, behaviours, ideas and artefacts are subject to inheritance, competition, accumulation of modifications, adaptation, geographical distribution, convergence and changes of function – these are mechanisms present also in biological evolution. In the following paper, we examine women's dance and physical exercise practices, which contain similar postures performed in comparable circumstances, as found in initiation ritual dances in chosen East African communities and in Slavic gymnastics for women in the Belarusian tradition. In times of globalization and the mixing of cultures, the position on knees and elbows is recontextualized in a visually attractive form of contemporary dances like Kangamoko and Baikoko, or more widely different variants of 'twerking' and reconstructed physical exercises. Approaching 'twerking' positions, especially on knees and elbows as a cross-genre performance, we find common roots in the communal support for women's good wife and mother status teachings in various cultures, showing the importance of women's circles, women's health and well-being for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to enhance the pedagogy of drawing by integrating relevant aspects of art history and aesthetics with perception and communication theories. Visualcy is defined as an articulacy with visual languages, from which the more familiar '3Rs' (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic), alluding to literacy and numeracy, evolved. It embraces not only the more familiar definition of 'visual literacy' in the sense of how people perceive, interpret, and learn from existing visual imagery, but also the semogenic facility for producing the means to understanding through the articulation of visual elements (line, shape, tone, texture, colour) in the construction of new images. After reviewing the role of drawing in cultural evolution, the article discusses drawing in relation to aesthetics, before outlining a pedagogy of drawing designed to nurture visualcy, of central importance to human culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constructs a theoretical framework for the production and reconstruction of food cultural space from a glocalization perspective. Through a qualitative analysis, we analyse the practice and representation of food cultural space in Yanji City. The results show that food cultural spaces have evolved from commercial residential to open urban leisure consumption spaces through a leap from a quantitative to a qualitative change.It integrates fashionable cultural consumption elements into the optimisation and expression of urban space extension, thus achieving the spatial image of symbolic communication. As the representational space of residents' daily life, the evolution of food cultural space is accompanied by capital multiplication, power cultivation, and class mobility, which play an important role in promoting urban space expansion and social structure renewal. The results enrich the research on food cultural space under the background of glocalisation and provide a reference for the sustainable development of urban cultural space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing three sets of video data collected in one Maya community, we examined apprenticeship and learning of backstrap loom weaving over three generations spanning the years 1970 to 2012. Like many cultural groups, the Maya of Chiapas are experiencing rapid sociodemographic shifts. Three generations of girls (N = 134) were observed at their looms: in the 1970 subsistence economy; in the transition to a commercial economy in the 1990s; and in 2012, when the commercial economy required formal education. Multilevel models showed that intergenerational sociodemographic change - increased time in school, greater involvement in the money economy, and decreased family size - changed weaving apprenticeship, which, in turn, was related to changes in characteristics of learners. In 2012, weaving learners received more explanations, praise, and body instruction from their teachers. Learners, in turn, asked more questions. However, these changes came at a cost - the gradual loss of weaving as an everyday subsistence practice and art form. Tracing intergenerational change over three generations, this study makes a unique contribution to an understanding of cultural evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stratified societies in the form of chiefdoms emerged during the Gusuku Period (ca. late eleventh–fifteenth centuries) in the Central Ryukyus (Amami and Okinawa Archipelagos), Japan. They competed among themselves, and by the fifteenth century, the Ryukyu Kingdom had been established. In contrast, the social organization of the Shellmidden Period (ca. 7,000–1,000 BP), comprising hunter-gatherer-fishers (HGF), has been considered primarily egalitarian. Here we examine the development of social organizations during the Shellmidden Period finding that for the first several thousand years, populations were both mobile and egalitarian. However, more complex societies evolved during the Early 5 phase of the Early Shellmidden Period. The social organizations that developed between Early 5 and the end of the Shellmidden Period explicitly illustrate the cyclical nature or sawtooth-like pattern of social evolution, as we note repeated alternations between egalitarian and more complex societal forms, not all of which evolved into chiefdoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the socio-cultural transformation and challenges faced by the Rongmei tribe against the backdrop of continuous demographic growth and rapid urbanisation , inadequate planning, and shoddy policies of deathscapes in Manipur, Northeast India. It also examines the recent changes in cultural and customary practices concerning death, dignity and disposal of the dead among the Tingkao Ragwang Chapriak (TRC) group within the Rongmei tribe of Imphal. This article is the result of ethnographic fieldwork conducted from 2015 to 2020. In the last two decades, Thien (a traditional institution of Rongmei) and TRC have played significant roles in transitioning and negotiating customary practises and acquiring burial land. The analysis of this dynamic process with the concept of 'mortal migration' conceptualised as an extra-territorial customary rite of passage of death, is a significant contribution of this paper. It falls under what may be called extra-territorial village administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty years of rising incarceration and mass punishment have solidified the carceral state as central to US governance and culture, and entrenched the perception of punishment as the most effective and moral response to interpersonal violence. Today, within a growing discourse challenging punishment as the primary response to interpersonal violence, restorative justice (RJ) is the most commonly promoted alternative. Yet in the context of the criminal legal system and in the broader RJ ecosystem, RJ responses to violence are limited, receiving minimal public and academic attention. This paper traces the developments of mass punishment and RJ over the last 50 years, analyzing their contrasting political and social evolutions. This analysis illustrates how punishment has captured the political, legal and social possibilities as it relates to violence, and how and why the field of RJ has been limited in its ability to advance non-punitive accountability-based approaches to violence. In addition, lessons are drawn from these instructive histories for the growing RJ efforts to address violence, to consider and challenge the varying forces that have made growing these responses difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuing medical education is essential to maintain and develop the skills of the healthcare workforce. Engagement with CME is required for maintaining practitioner licence in the United Arab Emirates. The CME environment in Abu Dhabi has been growing quickly, with rising numbers of activities and learner participation. Though Abu Dhabi's Department of Health(DOH) has a history of regulating CME for its health professionals, it has typically relied on activity audits that have been inefficient and laborious. Consequently, the DOH evaluated and subsequently adopted international standards for provider accreditation and implemented a new model. That system incorporates eligibility standards, a digital system of registration, standards for ensuring learners are protected from advertising and promotion, expectations for educational outcomes, attendance verification, and program evaluation. DOH introduces an accreditation statement, set standards for activity documentation, data protection, and published a limited range of international systems whose credits could be recognized by DOH. Embedded in the new accreditation system is a restructured internal workforce, trained and supported to ensure accurate, consistent, and transparent accreditation decisions. DOH has supported implementation through a revised website, community meetings, provider training, and provider support services. DOH anticipates continuing evolution to support a culture of learning and competency management of the healthcare professionals in its workforce through CME, and in doing so support the delivery of high-quality healthcare to its citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an exhibition titled "Des cheveux et des poils" at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, which explores the cultural and historical significance of hair beauty practices in Europe. The exhibition is divided into five thematic spaces and showcases artifacts, images, and videos related to hair and beauty. However, the exhibition has been criticized for its Eurocentric focus and failure to address the impact of colonialism and non-western beauty practices on European beauty conventions. The article highlights the erasure of non-white people and their contributions to European aesthetics and calls for a more inclusive examination of hair and beauty. [Extracted from the article]

The famed explorer, scientist, and U.S. government administrator John Wesley Powell (1834–1902) was a significant contributor to cultural evolutionary thinking in the late-nineteenth century. In addition to scientific publications, he also – curiously – used the genre of poetry as an outlet for his ideas. This article analyzes two of Powell's obscure published poems. I argue that his poetry is significant, not for its literary value, but for what it reveals about theories of cultural evolution that were operative for a significant U.S. government agent who played a critical role in the production of knowledge about Native American religions. This article contributes to the theme of political theology and settler colonialism by examining the ideological features of settler colonialism – the production of ideas, knowledge, and theories that have supported and justified U.S. settler colonialism. I demonstrate that there was an aesthetic as well as a scientific register to racialized cultural evolutionary thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses 14 in-depth interviews with individuals who felt involved with and were young during what is commonly known as 'the Sixties' in America to explore the potential relevance of youth-generated boundaries for now even older age. Analyzed data are focused upon informants' subjective identifications and life course understandings as among a specific, though highly relevant section of the first generation to have now lived more complete lives inside Western post-World War 2 cultural transformations, in which the experience of youth and passage to adulthood became reshaped for many. Interviews show a continued significance of youth-generated boundaries around aging, parent culture, and conventional adulthood informants attribute to the Sixties that influence how they conceptualize their current self, peers, and understand social generations generally. We argue our data extend recent research from youth (sub)cultural studies on how subjective youth cultural connections can configure eventual adulthoods to the latter phases of life. Generally, where we do detect youth-generated boundaries as shaping aspects of how sampled Sixties affiliates profess to be looking ahead to later life, findings suggest a complexified corresponding older age containing newer types of markings and subjective experiences might be emerging that merit empirical consideration beginning with this generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous people have a right to culturally responsive secure inpatient forensic mental health services (FMHS). Yet, there is a paucity of literature highlighting such facilities. This study aims to provide an exemplar of a culturally responsive Māori minimum secure unit for the indigenous people (Māori) of Aotearoa (New Zealand). A Māori research approach (Kaupapa Māori research) was used to highlight the voice of tāngata whai i te ora (service users), their whānau (family), and Māori kaimahi (staff), to describe life in this service. Personal recovery-oriented care was evident emphasizing developing a sense of cultural identity. This approach was attached to a focus on collective identity to enable people to gain skills to thrive within their whānau, once living in the community. This was achieved through a combination of embedding Māori values and practices into daily life, coupled with a blending of culturally specific and evidence-based programmes. Despite the significant gains demonstrated through the development of this culturally responsive unit, challenges to progress exist. Māori leadership to the unit has been eroded, but those interviewed expressed resolve to navigate a solution. This exemplar provides an international impetus for cultural transformation to meet the needs of indigenous peoples in FMHS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a question posed by the increase of democratic backsliding: whether democracy itself is compatible with human nature. It analyses democracy as a layered system consisting of three levels: the political/institutional, the social/interactional and the psychological/intrapsychic. At each level it uses evolutionary theory to describes features of a 'light side' of human nature that makes democracy possible, and of a 'dark side' of human nature that leads to democratic backsliding. At the political/institutional level these features are the reduction of reactive aggression and the capacity for the intragroup stranger. At the social/interactional level they are the cultural evolution of cooperative norms and an inclusive group identity. At the psychological/intrapsychic level they are the coherent, continuous positive self-experiences produced by shared positive emotions. However, these mechanisms can misfire at each level, producing the dark side that leads to democratic backsliding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, we examine the role of visual and material rhetoric in rethinking and negotiating identity, culture, and belonging. Specifically, we analyse the La Malinche temporary exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, and how it functions as an invitational site to critique and challenge pre-existing colonial boundaries; to rethink and renegotiate complex, hybrid feminine identities, and to engage in intercultural dialogue. We explore the relationship of the exhibit design and selected pieces to the concepts of mestizaje, Mexicanidad, and feminidad. Finally, we discuss the salience of la Malinche's cultural transformation from a traitor to an icon, and her importance to modern Chicano/a scholarship, through the connections created in artistic representations of her legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsatisfied with the traditional history, d'Avenel focused on quantitative data to understand the past. He built series of prices of multiple goods and services from 1200 onwards to document long-term changes in incomes and prices as a result of the technical progress and in inequalities as captured by the top 1%. Criticised by some contemporary historians, his data were used by Vilfredo Pareto, Irving Fisher, Ragner Frisch or Alfred Marshall and are still exploited. His analysis fertilised various fields in particular the Annales School and his findings on social evolutions attract the interest of 21st-century social scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the challenges posed by the early discourse of the creative city in the case of Patras, a regional city of Greece and European Capital of Culture in 2006 before the prolonged economic crisis in Greece. We focus on the relevance and the forms of cultural creation and artistic networking for the creative city rather than on innovation hubs and technological creativity. We develop a qualitative study of culture creatives in the city to examine the potential of local cultural and artistic agents, social groups and institutions to enhance networking and clustering in the urban milieu, which is also influenced or distorted by city planning capacities and politics. The culture management study identifies several constraints and frictions related to the potential transformation of cultural networks to clusters and analyzes the relevance of cultural lag in the literature of creative cities and urban regeneration. The constraints are discussed within a framework of cultural and institutional lag, which characterize city stakeholders. The study identifies practices that enable organizational facilitation and capacity for proactive culture creation, creative networking and potential clustering. Those activities support culture-led socio-economic urban regeneration planning and inspire the potential making of a creative city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the crossroads of fast-paced communication trends and the partnerships EFSA has forged with its peer organisations globally, social sciences evolved to become an integrated part of the organisation's work - the topic also grew to become a salient part of the scientific programme of EFSA conferences. Organised every three to four years, the latter aim to bring together experts and stakeholders to discuss key food safety topics and share knowledge, data and expertise. Most recently, the ONE Conference held in Brussels 21-24 June 2022, offered the opportunity to do so as part of the session on 'Putting science into context – the future of social sciences in risk analysis'. In this special issue, we wish to highlight some of the key points discussed and offer the opportunity for conference speakers, coming from organisations that inspired the evolution of social science at EFSA, to further elaborate the evidence-based approaches employed to strengthen communication and engagement in their work. We also welcome commentaries of established experts in this area on key conference takeaways and ways forward to continuously improve the application of humanities and social sciences in regulatory organisations working in the realm of food regulation, food safety and public health and nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several decades the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a 'Cultural Transformation Initiative' aimed at addressing racial discrimination. Yet recent work from a wide range of sources questions whether these efforts have resulted in meaningful material transformations to USDA governance. This article focuses on one of the USDA's main farmland protection programs and analyzes the extent to which it challenges and/or reproduces racial inequalities in the state of Georgia. We conclude that the program continues to present significant barriers to racial equity, many of which stem from national-level criteria. Moreover, the USDA's internal civil rights audit mechanism also fails to address or acknowledge these problems. We use quantitative and qualitative methods to highlight how racial inequality is reproduced through class biases, and argue that any meaningful transformation in the uneven effects of USDA programs requires attention to the historical geographies of land ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although archaeologists often highlight the capacity of our field to identify broad-scale patterning in human societies, critiques of social evolution led many to focus on shorter-term, local histories. Drawing from a recent review of alternative models, we employ firefly synchronicity – the rhythmic coordination of flashing observed in some species of bioluminescent fireflies – as a model for understanding patterning in the timing of platform mound construction by Indigenous peoples of Tampa Bay, on the western coast of the Florida peninsula, USA. Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates and isotopic studies of oyster shells from three neighbouring sites reveals rhythmic coordination in the construction of platform mounds across the first millennium CE. We relate this patterning to interaction in seasonal and longer-term ritual cycles which may have facilitated collective management of zero-sum common property resources. Firefly synchronicity provides a useful model for identifying patterning in archaeological phenomena without much of the baggage of social evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increasing support, in international legal theory and advocacy, for water governance approaches that go beyond the technocratic, and recognise the reciprocal relatedness of water peoples and water places. Such an approach may seem logical within certain Indigenous law and belief systems, but can Western legal frameworks become more 'relational'? How can they evolve to be capable of meaningfully relating with Indigenous systems of law and governance for water? This article draws on a comprehensive survey of comparative legal developments affecting water across seven settler-colonial countries in Australasia and Latin America that attempt (or profess) to be relational. I critically evaluate these attempts against the 'yardstick' of relationality. In each jurisdiction there are unresolved calls for a social, cultural and constitutional transformation of some sort, in which Indigenous and environmental justice are key. The analysis here reveals the potential for constitutional law to drive relational water laws, although without place-based specificity and supporting institutions, resources and redistributions of power, constitutional approaches risk having little practical impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neil Levy argues that the importance of acquiring cultural knowledge in our evolutionary past selected for conformist and deferential social learning, and that contemporary bad beliefs – roughly, popular beliefs at odds with expert consensus – result primarily from the rational deployment of such conformity and deference in epistemically polluted modern environments. I raise several objections to this perspective. First, against the cultural evolutionary theory from which Levy draws, I argue that humans evolved to be highly sophisticated and vigilant social learners. Given this, the ubiquity of bad beliefs in the modern world is puzzling: if humans are so smart and suspicious, why do these characteristics seem so rare in domains such as politics? I argue that the answer rests on the incentives that underlie bad beliefs, and I favorably contrast this explanation with Levy's appeal to epistemic pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper replies to the contributors to a symposium on the book Bad Beliefs. It groups the criticisms and concerns of the contributors under the headings "Gaps and Holes", "Rationality", "Epistemic Virtue", "Agency and Control" and "Nudges". It defends the view that bad belief formation and maintenance is very importantly rational, though it also acknowledges gaps, limitations and unanswered questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This brief paper sketches the main theses of my recent book Bad Beliefs. The book defends the view that human cognition is more evidence responsive than most psychologists and naturalistic philosophers think. In particular, we are responsive to the abundant higher-order evidence that we encounter in experiments and in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this research is to present the evolution of the social perception of masculine and feminine rape in literary and cinematographic fiction. Traditionally, masculine and feminine rape are constructions erected from masculinity. However, modernity has shown rape without genre, or a binary rape. After introducing the notions of literature, sexuality, masculinity, genre, and rape, we are going to ask ourselves: is there a correlation in sexual identity between juvenile reality and juvenile fiction based on new theories of the construction of sexuality? The analysis compares The City and the Dogs (1963), by Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, For Thirteen Reasons (2007) by the American Jay Asher and The Fifty Shades Saga (2015-2017) by the British writer E. L. James. The article includes 20 interviews with young people between the ages of 20 and 30. We will show that language, lexicon and image are one of the elements of modern male and female socio-sexual construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design is increasingly used to develop public services, and considerations have arisen regarding how to gain best value from it. Design ladders and design maturity models are commonly also referenced in the public sector, but we argue that their adequate use must rest on an informed view of the diversity of design activities in public-sector organizations. The world's major cities are large and highly diversified organizations. Our inductive case study of one of them, the city of Helsinki, reveals 23 design activities, distinct in terms of the process, outcomes or agency that design has. These activities can be grouped into six different clusters. These lay the ground for each other and support the cultural transformation of the organization into being a more citizen-centric organization. At the same time, they also create a design management challenge and confusion over what 'design' is and what it can do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, digital technologies have presented new opportunities for innovative Holocaust commemoration and education. Accordingly, scholars across disciplines have focused on "digital Holocaust memory" as a new frontier in both research and practice. But what exactly do they mean when they use this term? This article provides a systematic analysis of the literature regarding digital Holocaust memory as published in leading academic journals between 2010 and 2022. We position the digitalization of Holocaust memory within the context of the global evolution of memory culture and differentiate between the Holocaust's "master narrative" and alternative, more peripheral Holocaust-related themes and perspectives. Scholars perceive the digitalization of Holocaust memory as enabling a new focus on marginal Holocaust-related narratives, but we demonstrate that they nevertheless tend to remain in the comfort zone of well-established Holocaust narratives while ignoring digital commemoration and education taking place at geographic and thematic margins. By focusing on the traditional master narrative of the Holocaust, we argue that the extant literature regarding digital Holocaust memory primarily serves to preserve the centrality of this narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adam Lowenstein's book, "Horror Film and Otherness," explores the social relevance and transformative power of horror cinema. Lowenstein argues that horror films can teach us about otherness and illuminate the ongoing evolution of social norms and identities. He challenges Robin Wood's analysis of American horror cinema, offering a more nuanced understanding of the genre's exploration of trauma, alienation, and displacement. Lowenstein engages with theorists and historians to examine the themes of aging, the body, gender, and sexuality in horror films from the 1970s to the present. While the book is comprehensive, it lacks coverage of trans people, which would further contribute to the exploration of otherness. Overall, "Horror Film and Otherness" is a landmark text that highlights the importance of horror in understanding society and the self. [Extracted from the article]

This book makes an original contribution to the global history of the senses by engaging with the "sensory turn."(Howes [2]) It critically examines the deeply ingrained meanings encoded by the senses in Chinese culture and society. This is the first collection of studies on the senses and sensory experiences in China, filling a void in sensory research in China and introducing novel perspectives to Chinese Studies. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the BJP's attempt to build centres of elite, traditional intellectuals by bringing together a variety of stakeholders in government and civil society. While dismantling advisory committees and attacking universities and established research institutions, the BJP has sought to build think tanks to give its political ideology a footprint in already established policy networks. Some scholars have characterized the BJP's think tanks as institutions of 'soft Hindutva', that is, organizations that avoid overt association with the BJP and Hindu nationalist linkages but pursue a diffuse Hindutva agenda nevertheless. Through a study of the BJP's two most prominent think tanks, I examine how such organizations build an alternative sense of respectable intellectual legitimacy, consolidate Hindutva networks across political, administrative, and military fields, and build a 'mimetic' Hindutva intellectual culture. The think tanks negotiate a fine balance between projecting a 'respectable' religious conservatism along with an aggressive Hindu majoritarianism. My findings demonstrate how manifestations of Hindutva can be both explicitly political and anti-political at the same time: advocating for political interventionism while eschewing politics and forging an apolitical route towards cultural transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did cultural consumption change during the Covid-19 pandemic? Whilst the impact of the pandemic on cultural production has been given significant attention, work on consumption has seen less attention. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by presenting a comparative analysis of two, nationally representative, surveys of cultural activity in England. The analysis demonstrates that, when cultural consumption moved online and to digital modes of delivery and engagement as a result of the pandemic, there was no discernible transformation in the stratification of cultural participation in England. The majority of the population, characterised by the absence of participation in formal, and often state-funded, cultural forms, saw no change to their patterns of engagement. Where cultural consumption did increase, this was among the small minority of people who were already highly engaged. This minority maps closely onto pre-existing inequalities identified by existing research on cultural consumption, in England and beyond. For cultural consumption and the stratification of taste, it seems that the 'new normal' of pandemic life was much like the 'old normal' of an art and cultural audience characterised by significant inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What causes turnover on the Billboard charts? The neutral model of cultural evolution, which assumes that taste is transmitted via an unbiased copying process, provides precise predictions regarding expected popularity distributions and turnover within a popularity-ranked list. Recent advances in this line make it possible to characterize the likelihood of music taste transmission mechanisms by investigating departures of observed turnover rates from neutral model predictions. Here, I bias the neutral model to investigate four alternative conceptions of individual music taste transmission (song quality, individual status, social network, and anticonformist) and use agent-based simulations to examine the impact on turnover. I then compare modeled with empirical turnover data from the Billboard Hot 100 over the period from 1958 to 2021 and find that observed turnover patterns are reproduced only in an anticonformist model simulating the systematic rejection of the most popular songs. This finding was unexpected and challenges the notion of a generalized "preference for the popular." Overall, this study contributes to ongoing debates regarding the mechanisms involved in the transmission of taste and the mechanics of fashion change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great diversity of social organisation present in the tribe Augochlorini makes these bees prime candidates from which to study the evolution of social behaviour. The Corynura group, sister to all other augochlorines, is comprised by three southern South American genera: Callistochlora, Corynura and Halictillus. The nest architecture and social behaviour of Ca. aureoviridis, Co. ampliata, Co. bruchiana, Co. nahuelita, H. amplilobus and H. reticulatus were studied in Argentina. Conclusive evidence of solitary and semisocial behaviour were found in a group where only communal behaviour had been confirmed. Two species presented socially polymorphic populations. Previous studies are reviewed and all data analysed considering species' flying periods. The possibility of eusocial behaviour is briefly discussed considering environmental factors. Since some of the species visit crops, these results are useful to develop techniques to manage native bees for pollination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates jeans use as well as the discursive practices that framed jeans-wearing in 1960s and 1970s socialist Yugoslavia. We adopt a practice theory approach that goes beyond the expressive capacity of jeans and focuses on their material and practical capacity as an epitome of cultural transformation. Practices discussed include embodied practices enabled by jeans and those that have jeans as their target, such as smuggling, dreaming, remaking, appreciation of authentic jeans and rejection of domestic substitutes, emotions about jeans, wearing jeans, and public narratives regarding jeans. We find that the significance of jeans-wearing was created by difficulty of access, the practice of semi-legal smuggling, contact with the West, and the "Italianness" of jeans. Jeans are conceptualized as a key point of connection between material and social transformation and a new structure of feeling, including the intimate experience of the body and its public presentation. We argue that the study of material artifacts as integral to certain practices helps us approach the larger systemic dimensions of (socialist) subjectivity and social transformation against the backdrop of the symbolic boundaries that divided East and West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Culture is never static but continues to change. The narrative is one of the prosaic performances in cultures with an oral tradition. Such prosaic performances are culture bearers and signifiers. Change in societal setup has affected the contexts within which the narrative is performed. In Kenya, one of these contexts is at the Kenya National Drama and Film Festival (KNDFF). This paper interrogates the identity of the narrative at the KNDFF space in Kenya. The narrative is broken down into parts in order to identify and discuss the present state of each part. The parts are: guiding principles of performance practice of the narratives at KNDFF, narrative structure, themes and topical issues encapsulated in the narratives, songs and dances, narrative language use and narrative audiences. In addition, there is a comparison made between the performance practice of the narrative in the traditional context and that at the KNDFF. This paper then discusses how change has taken place in the narrative and how the process of cultural transformation has been negotiated in the performance practice of the narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive review of 1985–2019 trends related to the (English) term social informatics was conducted for scholarly literature, research and educational institutions, conferences, journals, blogs, and presentations at the International Conference on Social Informatics. The bibliographic search yielded 275 scientific documents with the term social informatics in the title, abstract, or keywords; which were coded according to ten characteristics. The analysis showed that corresponding scientific publications peaked in 2005–2009 and then roughly stagnated. At the same time, they increasingly spread worldwide, with most authors still referring to the concept of social informatics developed by Rob Kling. Other activities related to social informatics were mostly stagnant or slightly declining after 2010–2014, except for the number of educational courses. In contrast, the widespread general use of the term social informatics grew rapidly, especially in the context of computational social science. This is most evident in the analysis of 476 papers from the proceedings of International Conference on Social Informatics (2009–2019), which revealed a very weak identification with the notion of social informatics. Considering these findings, the prospects of social informatics are discussed in a broader context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One popular genre of YouTube content in the Philippines is the Miss Universe reaction video made by queer fans during pageant viewing parties. The videos show hysterical and dramatic expressions of fans which are conceptualized as a form of queer expression, kabaklaan [Diaz (2018). Biyuti from below: Contemporary Philippine cinema and the transing of Kabaklaan. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 5(3), 404–424]. By analyzing the circulation of the videos, the present study aims to identify the roles of YouTube users and digital platforms in the transformations of the queer expression. My findings suggest that the affordances of YouTube (visibility, participation, dissemination) contribute to the commodification of the reaction videos and the popularization of queer emotional performances. At the same time, YouTube provides a facility where users can participate in the politics of queer recognition. The study shows how circulation can account for cultural transformations and continuity on digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a world-system characterized by processes and dynamics whose interconnections and interdependencies increase exponentially each day, we are passing through an extremely delicate and complex phase of global mutation. What we are witnessing is a radical overturn of the complex interaction between natural (biological) and cultural evolution. The ongoing paradigm shift and profound anthropological transformation create new dimensions, openings, epistemological implications that require new thinking and new thought, as well as different approaches and methods. We are the constitutive elements of a "new" Nature, from a structural, ontological and substantial point of view, in need of a New Humanism that must re-define certain categories (humanity, identity, dignity, Person, values, rights, etc.) in order to succeed in rethinking "being human" within a renewed and complex relationship with the ecosystems. The grand illusions of the hypertechnological civilization: rationality, control, measurability, predictability, and elimination of error; are reinforced systematically by the carte blanche delegated to technique/technology, reintroducing reductionist and deterministic approaches, analyses and explanations, exclusively based on technical knowledge and skills: that is, those which are guaranteed to best support precisely these very illusions. It is precisely this attitude which prevents us from being prepared, which dooms us to an eternal apprehension of black swans, little aware that our very lives are emergency; that they are infinite sequences of black swans. The present-day obsession with doing, designing, studying, and funding only what is "useful," the insistent search for control and certainty in order to cling onto an illusory sensation of familiarity and reassurance in the face of the radical unpredictability and variability inherent to life and reality ("tyranny of concreteness"). With the advent of artificial intelligence, it has become of the utmost importance to reflect upon the relationship/interaction between man and machine, and the dangers posed by pursuing the simulation of human thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can people efficiently navigate the modern communication environment, and if yes, how? We hypothesize that in addition to psychological capacities of epistemic vigilance, which evaluate the epistemic value of communicated information, some social institutions have evolved for the same function. Certain newspapers for instance, implement processes, distributed among several experts and tools, whose function is to curate information. We analyze how information curation is done at the institutional level and what challenges it meets. We also investigate what factors favor the cultural evolution of institutions of epistemic vigilance: these include people's preference for accurate and reliable information and their ability to assess communicated information in view of the source's epistemic authority; but also contingent historical factors that make it worth – or not – to contribute to the maintenance of institutions of epistemic vigilance. We conclude the paper by considering the challenges and vulnerabilities of these institutions in the Digital Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of private lands conservation (PLC) for endangered species continues to grow as habitat is increasingly lost or fragmented. In Texas, nearly 98% of all property is privately owned, rendering PLC critical for protecting endangered species. Despite case studies regarding factors leading to stewardship outcomes for endangered species, a knowledge gap exists regarding PLC for endangered species. To help address this gap, we situate findings from 30 key informant interviews and two focus groups within a novel stewardship framework to understand how PLC interventions for the endangered Houston toad (Anaxyrus houstonensis) appeal to landowners. Our approach revealed that local changes in conservation norms and networks can build relationships between resource-deficient landowners and practitioners that increase awareness and trust, combating barriers to PLC. Enhanced networks and cultural transformation facilitated by demographic changes and decentralized governance can allow stewardship obligations to supersede culturally embedded rural myths and attitudes of anti-government sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a Bahá'í concept of peace in the context of discussions about the nature and focus of peace education, in particular the role of moral education as an element of peace education. It introduces the notions of human nobility and the oneness of humanity as the moral basis for holistic peace within a framework of the collective social evolution of humanity, and explores the idea of identifying, understanding, and removing barriers to unity, specifically in the form of inequalities and prejudices, as the foundation of an approach to peace education. The application of such an approach to a university level course is shared through a case study of 'The Problem of Prejudice', offered by the Bahá'í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland, College Park. Key strands of content and pedagogy are described, and qualitative data from students participating in the course in 2021 (n = 20), collected in the form of self-perceptions of changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes and commitment, are presented. The article concludes with a discussion of the learning gained from this study and how a Bahá'í concept of peace may serve as a resource for university peace educators and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the globalization of business, historically developed business practices based on cultural values can suddenly become dysfunctional. Chinese exporters, particularly in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for instance, are adopting new trade credit risk practices in response to unreliable international customers. Through 45 in-depth interviews, we investigated how Chinese SMEs are changing their perspectives on International Trade Credit Risk Management by employing a cultural values evolution approach. We explained why some Chinese exporters, but not others, shift from affect-based to fact-based risk management practices concerning trade credit. As a major outcome of our research, we identified and articulated four alternative stances towards credit risk: conventionalism, polycentrism, pragmatism, and rationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]