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This article provides a review of three biographies that examine the lives of women in different historical contexts. The first biography, "The Perfect Fascist" by Victoria de Grazia, delves into the life of Attilio Teruzzi, a devoted follower of Mussolini, and the significant roles that women played in his life. The second biography, "Empire's Mistress" by Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, tells the story of Isabel Rosario Cooper, an actress in the Philippines who was often overshadowed by her relationship with General Douglas MacArthur. The third biography, "Woman between Two Kingdoms" by Leslie Castro-Woodhouse, explores the life of Dara Rasami and her experiences as an outsider in Siam's royal court. These biographies offer valuable insights into the complex lives of these women and their interactions with larger historical events. Additionally, the article discusses two related books that further explore the lives of Isabel Rosario Cooper and Dara Rasani, providing intimate details through personal documents and photographs. These books will be of interest to scholars and students studying gender studies, Asian studies, and Thai history, as they shed light on the struggles for agency and independence faced by women in patriarchal societies. [Extracted from the article]

Homoploutia describes the situation in which the same people are rich in the space of capital and labor income. We combine survey and administrative data to document the evolution of homoploutia in the United States since 1950. In 1950, 10 percent of top decile capital‐income earners were also in the top decile of labor income. Today, this indicator is 30 percent. This makes the traditional division to capitalists and laborers less relevant today. We find that the increase in homoploutia accounts for 20 percent of the increase in interpersonal income inequality since 1986. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates the temporal and mental workload as well as work satisfaction regarding bureaucratic, administrative household labor, with a focus on socio-demographic differences. The study utilizes a paid online survey with 617 socio-demographically distributed participants. The results show significant differences in the temporal workload of different chore categories and in the quality of work, whereby satisfaction and mental workload are examined. In addition, the influences of gender, age, and education are analyzed, revealing differences in temporal and mental workload as well as work satisfaction. Our findings confirm prevailing literature showing that women have lower work satisfaction and a higher workload. In addition, we also discovered that younger people and groups of people with higher incomes have a higher level of satisfaction and a higher workload. In our study, a perceived high mental workload does not necessarily go hand in hand with a low level of satisfaction. This study contributes to the understanding of the bureaucratic burden on adults in their households and the variety of activities to manage private life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "What Is to Be Done? Neoliberalism and the Role of the Humanist in Higher Education" by Rebecca Hensley explores power dynamics, oppression, and the role of humanists in higher education. It references Vladimir Lenin's pamphlet "What Is to Be Done?" to discuss the concept of a political vanguard in revolution. The article critiques neoliberalism, police militarism, privatization of education, and capitalism, highlighting issues of inequality, exploitation, and the erosion of public services. The author argues for challenging these systems and envisioning a more equitable society, emphasizing the importance of resistance, education, and critical thinking in creating positive change. [Extracted from the article]

Background: The literature on celebrity politics often asserts that celebrity politicians are good at fundraising. They are wealthy people in wealthy social networks, and this should give them a fundraising advantage compared to their noncelebrity opponents. Yet, this hypothesis has never been tested. Method: Fundraising data from 1964 to 2022 was collected from multiple sources. Results: This study finds that celebrity candidates are typically not able to out‐fundraise their opponents. Yet they perform remarkably well despite this disadvantage. Conclusions: Celebrities tend to win elections when they raise more money than their opponents, run in open‐seat contests or local elections. They tend to lose elections when they lose the fundraising battle, challenge incumbents, or seek federal offices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the causal effect of co-payment exemption on the number of specialist visits in the Italian National Health System. Exploiting a discontinuity in the multiple eligibility criteria, we apply multiple regression discontinuity in a quasi-experimental setting, considering both age and income requirements. Differently from the standard regression discontinuity, this twofold discontinuity allows to identify the effect of co-payment on a particularly needy sub-population of less wealthy people and how it changes according to the eligibility criteria. We find positive effects of co-payment exemption and the effects are stronger for less wealthy and older individuals. The result may be useful to the policy maker to tailor ad-hoc policies aimed at disadvantaged sub-populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residence-by-investment schemes, which enable wealthy people to acquire a visa in return for a financial investment, have become increasingly common. In this article, an original immigration policy index and case studies are used to examine the political economy of residence-by-investment policies in three European countries: France, Spain, and the UK. Two contributions are made to the literature. First, the article compares investment with work visas and shows that across all three countries investor routes are significantly more open and generous than work routes, including for the highly skilled. Second, drawing on theories of comparative political economy, it is explored how investor visas are shaped by capitalist diversity. Based on these three cases, it is argued that investor visa policies are conditioned by national-level economic models and the political interests that underpin them. The article aims to advance understanding not only of how investor visas vary, but why they do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amateur breeding of parrots as pets has contributed to many species being found in areas where they never occurred in the wild, particularly in warmer regions, but also in the temperate climates of North America and Europe. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this process. We hypothesised that parrots occurred in the wild in the cities of Poland, especially the rose-ringed parakeet, as there are reports of breeding sites in the literature. Using information on lost, found and sighted parrots posted on social media, we have analysed the extent of parrot emergence in Poland. In a period of less than two years (from October 2018, through 2019 and from June to the end of December 2021), 2,675 parrot specimens of 49 species were found in the wild. The most frequently observed species were cockatiel Nymphicus hollandicus (N = 962), budgerigar Melopsittacus undulatus (N = 884) and rose-ringed parakeet Psittacula krameri (N = 182). Parrots were most frequently observed in urban areas, in regions characterized by a higher population size, a higher income and a higher proportion of people with a university degree. Our study shows that the occurrence of parrots, especially rose-ringed parakeets in the wild, needs to be monitored as new breeding sites may appear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ongoing debate in the literature is around the existence and constitution of a so-called 'global elite'. This article enters that debate – seeking to understand what connected but also divided a group of wealthy young people occupying a transnational space. It examines consumptive practices at one of the most expensive secondary schools in the world, educating a cross-section of the globally wealthy in Switzerland. The article offers insights into the boredom that pervaded this group, shaping some of the consumptive practices that bound its members. It also argues that other consumptive practices reflected consciously articulated differences within this group, such as national- and linguistic-based social groupings. The case study offers a unique opportunity to examine consumption as a lens onto cohesion and distinction within a particular group of transnationally located, wealthy young people, thus contributing to scholarship around the nature of the 'global elite' at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an investigation of the factors influencing the decision to purchase processed food based on traffic-light labeling (TLL). To achieve this, we use data from the official National Survey of Health and Nutrition, which gathered information on 26,532 individuals aged between 19 and 59 between 2011 and 2013. Employing a probit regression to assess the likelihood of buying food based on TLL, we identify a positive association between income level and the probability of buying food based on TLL; indeed, our model suggests that a 1% increase in monthly income increases by 0.008 the probability of buying food based on TLL. We infer that people with higher levels of income are more aware of the benefits of TLL and healthy food habits. Our results also suggest that the probability of basing purchasing decisions on TLL is higher for overweight people compared to those of normal weight, that is, overweight people buy their processed food paying more attention to TLL compared to normal weight people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of educational migration on the development of Bukchon, a neighborhood in Gyeongseong (now Seoul), South Korea. It discusses the concentration of prestigious schools in Bukchon and how this was influenced by power dynamics and social status. The article also explores the role of education in social reproduction and upward mobility, as well as the transformation of Bukchon into a modern city during the Japanese occupation. Overall, the research aims to understand the relationship between educational institutions and the transition of Bukchon to a modern urban area, providing insights into the historical context of education and class reproduction in Korea. [Extracted from the article]

We investigate whether older people correctly perceive their cognitive decline and the potential financial consequences of misperception. First, we show that older people tend to underestimate their cognitive decline. We then show that those experiencing a severe decline but unaware of it are more likely to suffer wealth losses. These losses largely reflect decreases in financial wealth and are mainly experienced by wealthier people who were previously active on the stock market. Our findings support the view that financial losses among older people unaware of their cognitive decline are the result of bad financial decisions, not of rational disinvestment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do affluent people drive used cars, elite chefs praise basic ingredients, and upper‐middle couples arrange backyard weddings? What makes senior professors feel comfortable dressing down and allows men to bring their kids into the office? This article takes a formal sociological approach to explore the cultural phenomenon of "Status Downplay"—a paradoxical type of status display, where more social status is signaled through a subtraction of status symbols. The trans‐contextual analysis of diverse manifestations of status downplay uncovers the inverted cultural presumptions of "doing" and "being" and the hierarchical classifications underlying such parodical presentation of self. The proposed semiotic model articulates the social privilege of unmarked actors' performative flexibility: the social license of those considered "normals" to deviate from the performative norm. Under this asymmetrical structure, status underdoings are revealed as markers of cultural dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When disaster occurred in Qing Dynasty, some of the rich people, say gentry and merchants, were willing to make great contributions on relief. According to sources, donations for relief had some benefits for them. Not merely can they gain official titles with self-identity and superiority, but can convert “cultural capital” into upwardly mobile political chances and strengthen a say in local politics, propelling them into positions of power. Therefore, when making a substantial payment on relief, in exchange, contributors using symbols paid attention on the importance of cultural hegemony in maintaining their positions in local society. The observation of the relief donation in the Qing Dynasty made it a site to study not just how people dealt with the famine policy within structure and what the social mechanism at the time developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a broad array of research linking nature engagement to health and well-being, people seem to be spending less time in nature now relative to previous decades. The ways in which nature engagement does or does not fulfill needs for individuals across the lifespan may impact their proclivity toward spending time in nature, but little is known about how people conceptualize the development of their attitudes and habits related to nature engagement. Using Self-Determination Theory as a guiding framework, this qualitative study relied on semi-structured interviews to examine the subjective experiences of twenty adults in Mississippi who were diverse in age and race to explore their nature engagement as a developmental phenomenon (Mage = 45.8, SD = 21.56). Reflexive thematic analysis was used to construct themes from the data and to reveal rich insight into people's experiences in nature, and how their current engagement related to their experiences as a child, teenager, and adult. These perspectives were interpreted in relation to the ways in which satisfaction of the fundamental needs of relatedness, autonomy, and competence may have guided the developmental aspects of nature engagement. These findings may support efforts to encourage healthy nature engagement via nature-focused education and intervention practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Appropriately taxing the richest is a priority for African governments, which need tax revenues to invest and pay for public services. In Uganda, the revenue authority launched a unit in 2015 to monitor the tax affairs of high‐net‐worth individuals (HNWIs) and very important persons (VIPs), 393 individuals in all. The unit combined persuasion, assistance, and enforcement. Purpose: To establish the extent to which the unit was able to improve tax compliance by the rich. Methods and approach: In collaboration with the Uganda Revenue Authority, this study builds on taxpayer‐level data on tax filing and payment. The analysis employs a standard difference‐in‐difference framework, exploiting the timing of the launch of the unit (September 2015). It also makes use of the existence of the target group of 393 wealthy individuals and a group of another 1,731 potentially wealthy individuals who have been identified but never included in the unit's operations owing to limited resources. We match the groups using a propensity score algorithm. Findings: The unit has been only partially successful. While the unit increased the probability of filing a return, especially by VIPs, taxpayers declared less on different measures, with no impacts on tax liability. On tax payments, only a small and significant positive impact was found, again due to complex offsetting responses across tax categories. This study also measures the spillover effect on companies controlled by the richest—again documenting complex compensating reactions and no meaningful impacts on tax take. Lastly, while deterrence is more effective for HNWIs, taxpayer assistance and public shaming are more relevant for VIPs. Policy implications: This case shows that the rich can be identified and their tax monitored. It also shows the limits of what can be achieved. The Uganda unit lacked staff; it needed twice as many people to monitor the tax of wealthy persons adequately. Moreover, it was hamstrung by the difficulties of sharing data between different departments of the Tax Authority, among government agencies, and between government and key agents such as banks. Ultimately, the unit did not have the staff and data to challenge the tax avoidance schemes deployed by wealthy people and the companies they own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In this article we seek to understand the changing social position of alcohol use for young people in Australia by identifying how alcohol has become framed as posing a significant risk to their bodies and futures. Methods: Forty interviews were conducted with young people aged 18–21 years from Melbourne, Australia, who had previously identified as light drinkers or abstainers. Drawing on insights from contemporary sociologies of risk, we explored how risk was discussed as a governing concept that shaped young people's views of alcohol, and how it encouraged or necessitated risk‐avoidance in daily life. Results: Participants drew on a range of risk discourses in framing their abstention or moderate drinking along the lines of health, wellness, wisdom and productivity. They reiterated social constructions of heavy or regular alcohol use as irresponsible, threatening and potentially addictive. The focus on personal responsibility was striking in most accounts. Participants seemed to have routinised ways of practicing risk avoidance and coordinated drinking practices with other practices in their everyday life, with alcohol therefore 'competing for time'. Discussion and Conclusions: Our findings endorse the idea that discourses of risk and individual responsibility shape the contemporary socio‐cultural value of alcohol for young people. Risk avoidance has become routine and is manifested through the practice of restraint and control. This appears particular to high‐income countries like Australia, where concerns about young people's futures and economic security are increasing, and where neoliberal politics are the foundations of governmental ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The responsibility and vulnerability of challenges in planetary health are unequally distributed across countries. In Brazil, meat carries an important cultural value even if from an environmental perspective its production is related to negative impacts. We explored Brazilian meat consumption over time, according to income groups from the perspective of the food inequalities and food justice and we analyzed its impacts on the environment. We used data from the 2008 and 2017 Household Budget Surveys to estimate meat intake and meat prices according to income level. The environmental impact indicators were based on the WWF Report. We analyzed the relationship between income, meat price, and its consumption by linear regression model. Brazilian meat intake was 86 g/1000 kcal in 2008, which is considered high intake and Brazilians increased meat intake by 12% from 2008 to 2017, with variations according to types of meat and income levels. Individuals of the lowest income stratum did not increase their meat consumption, and they spent around 17 times more of their income to buy one kilogram of beef compared to people from the highest income group. There was a significant positive relationship between purchasing power and intake of meat across income groups. In 2017, meat contributed to 86% of the Brazilian diet's carbon footprint. In Brazil, relevant factors for meat intake may be associated with restricted purchasing power, food affordability, rising prices and income inequalities. Our findings indicate the relevance not only of food availability and intake but also the local variables such as socio-economic inequalities and cultural meanings food can assume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at discussing the recent evolutions experienced by housing in Contemporary China through the study of the living habits of wealthy families in the fringes of Shanghai and Chongqing. The copycat phenomenon widespread across Chinese cities is one example, on the one hand, of the transformations of social uses of the house which gains a dimension of visibility; and, on the other hand, of an object that so far has been studied only through Western-centred conceptions of visuality and materiality. This research offers a different perspective, one of the inhabitants of neighbourhoods with exotic atmospheres. The analysis of the discourse of the residents as well as their daily practices of space appropriation and home decoration reveals that the house plays a new role in social interactions. As a social mean of representing the status of its occupants, the outside part of the building, its surroundings and some of the interior are assigned a visual dimension destined to the outside viewers and guests of the family, transforming the relationships between the public and private spheres which duality do not match the one of what is visible and what is invisible. Contrariwise to general views about the Western style neighbourhoods, what is offered to the view does not convey a process of westernisation or acculturation of the daily life, but expresses the will for a liberation from certain social constraints experienced in the former place of residency. The Chinese contemporary home is then, among this wealthier part of the population where domestic space is a valuable resource, the place of production of a new urbanity where different forms of sociality and representations coexist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Food insecurity (FI) often co-exists with other social risk factors, which makes addressing it particularly challenging. The degree of association between FI and other social risk factors across different levels of income and before and during the COVID-19 pandemic is currently unknown, impeding the ability to design effective interventions for addressing these co-existing social risk factors. Objective: To determine the association between FI and other social risk factors overall and across different levels of income-poverty ratios and before (2019) and during (2020–2021) the pandemic. Design: We used nationally representative data from the 2019–2021 National Health Interview Survey for our cross-sectional analysis. Social risk factors available in NHIS included difficulties paying for medical bills, difficulties paying for medications, receiving income assistance, receiving rental assistance, and "not working last week". Subjects: 93,047 adults (≥18 years old). Key Results: Individuals with other social risk factors (except receiving income assistance) were more likely to report FI, even after adjusting for income and education inequalities. While poverty leads to a higher prevalence of FI, associations between FI and other social risk factors were stronger among people with higher incomes, which may be related to their ineligibility for social safety net programs. Associations were similar before and during the pandemic, perhaps due to the extensive provision of social safety net programs during the pandemic. Conclusions: Future research should explore how access to a variety of social safety net programs may impact the association between social risk factors. With the expiration of most pandemic-related social supports, further research and monitoring are also needed to examine FI in the context of increasing food and housing costs. Our findings may also have implications for the expansion of income-based program eligibility criteria and screening for social risk factors across all patients and not only low-income people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on how the combination of the U.S. tax code and state trust laws facilitates the growth of economic inequality, particularly through the ownership and circulation of high-value art collections. It examines how wealthy individuals, both domestic and international, exploit legal loopholes and offshore accounts to evade taxes, launder money, and avoid scrutiny, thereby exacerbating wealth disparities.

The article provides a critical analysis of several high-profile films released in 2023. It highlights the shortcomings of films such as "Napoleon," "Ferrari," and "Maestro" in effectively portraying their respective subjects. The author argues that these films fail to capture the depth and significance of figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, the love of racing in Ferrari, and Leonard Bernstein's impact on music in "Maestro." The article also mentions Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon," criticizing its focus on a small-time thug rather than the investigators or victims of the Osage Indian murders. However, the author praises "Oppenbeimer" for its exploration of greatness and history, while finding an unnamed film about Ernest Burkhart uninteresting and incomprehensible. [Extracted from the article]

This text introduces a special issue of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, focusing on the book "Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict" by James Crossley and Robert J. Myles. The book examines Jesus and his movement through the lens of class conflict, interpreting elements of the Jesus tradition in relation to socio-economic conditions. The special issue includes review essays by scholars who provide diverse perspectives on the book's arguments. The book challenges conventional approaches to historical Jesus scholarship and presents a Jesus who targeted the rich and advocated for a hierarchical society that benefited his class. It also situates Jesus firmly within Second Temple Judaism and explores how Christianity became the dominant discourse of the Roman Empire. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the experiences of African-American farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley, California, focusing on the story of Vance McKinney and his family. The McKinneys faced racism and economic exploitation upon their arrival in California, but were able to purchase property in the segregated community of Matheny Tract. The article highlights the discrimination and segregation faced by the Black community in Matheny Tract, as well as their resilience and the support they received from some white individuals. It also discusses the challenges faced by the community in obtaining basic services and emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and addressing past struggles to combat racism. [Extracted from the article]

Access to social capital is stratified by socioeconomic status and has been cross-sectionally linked to involvement in voluntary organizations. Yet, we know little about the origin and interplay of these empirical regularities. Regression analyses on German panel data (SC6-NEPS) reveal that people rich in social capital join organizations more often (selection). Furthermore, joiners access more and higher-status social capital after joining (socializing opportunities). Low-status individuals disproportionally extend their reach towards higher positions through involvement but join less often. Compared to a counterfactual situation in which nobody joins, current involvement patterns marginally reduce some socioeconomic inequalities in access to social capital. • Social capital is measured with the position generator. • Joining a voluntary organization yields access to social capital. • High-status individuals get involved more often, low-status individuals gain more. • Current involvement patterns slightly reduce some social capital inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster capitalism creates political and economic space for neoliberal projects to benefit the wealthy disproportionately while marginalizing Indigenous groups. This paper examines how and the extent to which local disaster capitalism has affected Indigenous communities in Nepal's Kathmandu Valley, as they recover from the 2015 earthquakes, and how local disaster capitalism ought to be countered. Based on an in-depth analysis of local disaster capitalism in Rudrayani Guthi, Nepal, the findings of this study demonstrate that Indigenous peoples have been negatively affected by state-sponsored disaster recovery schemes, whereas wealthy people and businesses have benefitted from them. Such schemes focus on "physical reconstruction" and "economic development", dispossessing Indigenous lands to pave the way for housing, motorways, greenfield urban development, and hydropower. Many Indigenous groups are forced to be part of such schemes, while local disaster capitalism continues in the name of "disaster recovery". The paper highlights the unfortunate reality of the local disaster capitalism taking shape and destroying Indigenous lives and livelihoods. The paper concludes by offering some principles used by Indigenous peoples while countering local disaster capitalism through confrontations with powerful actors and while protecting their land during the process of disaster recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These pre-registered studies shed light on the cues that individuals use to identify rich people. In two studies (N = 598), we first developed a factor-analytical model that describes the content and the mental structure of 24 wealth cues. A third within-subject study (N = 89) then assessed the perception of rich subgroups based on this model of wealth cues. Participants evaluated the extent to which the wealth cues applied to two distinct subgroups of rich people. The results show: German and US-American participants think that one can identify rich people based on the same set of cues which can be grouped along the following dimensions: luxury consumption, expensive hobbies, spontaneous spending, greedy behavior, charismatic behavior, self-presentation, and specific possessions. However, Germans and US-Americans relied on these cues to different degrees to diagnose wealth in others. Moreover, we found evidence for subgroup-specific wealth cue profiles insofar as target individuals who acquired their wealth via internal (e.g., hard work) compared to external means (e.g., lottery winners) were evaluated differently on these wealth cues, presumably because of their perceived differences in valence and competence. Together, this research provides new insights in the cognitive representation of the latent construct of wealth. Practical implications for research on the perception of affluence, and implications for political decision makers, are discussed in the last section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is robust evidence that people with higher incomes tend to have higher self-esteem, but little is known about how changes in income and self-esteem are related within individuals. Some theories predict that increased earnings lead to higher self-esteem, others that increased self-esteem leads to higher earnings, and still others that there should be no within-person associations between these variables. We tested these theories in 4-year longitudinal data from more than 4,000 adult participants from a Dutch representative sample. Results indicated significant between-person associations between income and self-esteem, consistent with prior research. Within-person effects suggested that increases in self-esteem are a function of previous increases in income more than the other way around. These links held when analyses controlled for employment status, and they generalized across gender, age, and educational background. Overall, the findings provide evidence for theories that consider self-esteem as both a source and a consequence of personal earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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