bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Supporting adults to address their literacy needs using e-learning
Authors: Fletcher Jo , Nicholas Karen , Davis Niki
Published: September 2023

Many adults need help with literacy learning. This is extremely challenging for the tertiary education sector and workplace-situated learning organisations. E-learning may be an effective and efficient way to improve the delivery of teaching basic skills learners. Our research study included five embedded case studies within one tertiary institution, and a series of stakeholder interviews with representatives across New Zealand. The study found that e-learning opens up greater interaction between adults’ study, work, home, and community environments, simply because the learning environment can be extended into those places.
Playing catch-up: Investigating public and institutional policies for OER practices in Australia
Authors: Bossu Carina , Brown Mark , Bull David
Published: September 2023

This article explores some of the most well-known Open Educational Resource (OER) initiatives worldwide and then reports on OER developments in Australia. It also discusses a current research project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), including its design and methods of data collection and analysis. Although the study reported here is ongoing, a survey of the tertiary sector to establish the current ‘state of play’ of OERs in Australia has been completed. The authors examine a preliminary analysis that focuses mostly on OER policies at governmental and institutional levels. The analysis shows that the OER movement remains relatively immature in Australia. Also, according to the survey’s participants, the government and educational institutions need to give much greater consideration to a regulatory framework in which the use of OER and Open Educational Practices (OEP) can be fostered and encouraged. Isolated OER activities exist, but there appears to be a great deal of catching up required if Australia is to have coordinated initiatives to foster innovation and a culture of more OEPs.
Re-visualising innovative online learning spaces in an early childhood teacher education programme
Authors: Pohio Lesley , Lee Maryann
Published: September 2023

This paper presents a critical examination of the challenges and rewards of re-visualising and designing an innovative online space for a first-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) Early Childhood Education (ECE) course, Visual Arts in the Early Years. The perspectives presented are drawn from a collaborative project between the course lecturer and learning designer. Central to the creation of this online learning space were the underpinning values and philosophy of the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education [MoE], 1996). With this as our guide, we set out to create a rich visual online learning experience that reflected the creative learning environments in early childhood education. The challenge was how to transform a dynamic and fluid face-to-face teaching and learning context into an online mode. This engendered considerable rethinking not only of the content, but the conceptual framework that informs best practice in e-learning. That is, the educational experience supported a conceptual framework that promoted social, cognitive and teaching presence (Garrison & Anderson, 2003). Key considerations for designing this learning experience were to incorporate strong visual provocations, multiple pathways to learning, opportunities for collaboration and reflection, as well as a holistic and integrated approach. In order to capture the unique nature of the course in the proposed design, it was essential to understand the underlying principles and values that informed the course. As Edwards, Gandini, and Forman (1998, p. 177) assert; “the space has to be a sort of aquarium that mirrors the ideas, values, attitudes, and cultures of the people who live within it.” It is argued that, without these beliefs being inherent in the design, the online learning environment that supports the depth of engagement and critical reflection by the learner is compromised.
History and heritage in open, flexible and distance education
Authors: Simpson Mary , Anderson Bill
Published: September 2023

Distance education’s history is a tremendous resource for all involved in distance education. Some aspects of that history provide enduring touchstones for present distance educators, creating a heritage that should not be overlooked as distance education continues to develop and expand. In this article we draw on the concept of generational frameworks to focus on particular developments that have shaped and continue to shape distance education. From those developments we identify and discuss seven elements that serve as the core features of the heritage that underpins our distance education practice. We challenge current distance educators to identify their own heritage elements and build on them as they contribute to the future of the discipline.
OtagoNet: One region’s model for virtual schooling
Authors: Pratt Keryn , Pullar Ken
Published: September 2023

Virtual schools are increasingly common in New Zealand and internationally as schools are challenged to meet the needs of their students. This case study presents an overview of a model used by a group of schools in rural Otago, New Zealand known as OtagoNet and the research conducted to evaluate this model. This OtagoNet group of schools have been using videoconference to deliver classes to each other’s students since 2002. The leadership team and roles are described, and the funding model, which is based on reciprocity, is outlined. The most common teaching and learning practices are described, and support mechanisms identified. Finally, a summary of the research conducted since OtagoNet’s inception is presented. This research shows that this model is generally effective for teachers and learners, although a number of factors impact on this.
The FarNet journey: Effective teaching strategies for engaging Māori students on the Virtual Learning Network
Authors: Barbour Michael K , Bennett Carolyn
Published: September 2023

The Virtual Learning Network (VLN) provides schools, particularly those in rural and remote areas, with the opportunity to cooperate to expand curricular offerings for their students. Each school that participates in a VLN cluster contributes at least one course delivered by an e-teacher, allowing member schools access to any course offered through the VLN that they cannot offer locally. At present, there is no formal national training for the e-teachers, although individual clusters offer a range of training opportunities. This case study focused on the e-teachers’ perceptions of the learning curve required for them to be adequately and effectively prepared to teach in the virtual environment. Results indicated that the experiences of e-teachers in this new learning environment were positive, but still embedded in the norm of a school. Further, e-teachers desired professional development beyond learning how to use the technology, but wanted more assistance in developing their pedagogy to work in the online environment. It is recommended that VLN cluster administration, and the Ministry of Education, provide a range of professional development opportunities in a variety of formats. The focus of this professional development should move beyond the technological tools and focus on how to use those tools in a virtual learning environment.
Editorial Introduction
Authors: Barbour Michael K , Pratt Keryn
Published: September 2023

Primary and secondary distance education: Expanding the knowledge base in the schools sector
Empowering Teachers? An Exploratory Study of Personnel Practices in Virtual Charter Schools in the United States
Authors: Beck Dennis , Maranto Robert
Published: September 2023

Virtual charter schools have the potential to transform teacher personnel management. However, there is currently little evidence that they are doing so. This study examined how 89 teachers at two virtual charter schools perceived school personnel practices and leadership. Survey analysis indicated that teachers perceived personnel practices as resembling those of their previous ‘brick and mortar’ public schools. The results also showed that these teachers had a more positive view of school leaders and the school climate than they had at their previous schools. Implications are discussed in light of teacher education and personnel management literature. Additional research is recommended, as is development of the preparation of school administrators to include online, flexible, and distance learning, and related innovative leadership practices.
Establishing a Sense of Connectedness Amongst Theology Students in Distance Education
Authors: Smith Nigel Vaughan , Erlam Charles , Quirke Naomi , Sylvester Grace
Published: September 2023

Student engagement is required for effective distance learning. Amongst other things, it is built by fostering connectedness amongst tutors, academic advisors, and students, and by providing high-quality content and materials through appropriate technologies. Students are more likely to succeed when they experience these different aspects as a coherent whole in their learning environment. Previously, Laidlaw College’s Centre for Distance Learning refined its systems for course design and evaluated its provision of academic support. The present paper reports findings from a survey which explored student learning experiences by measuring perceptions of connectedness with tutors, advisors, and their fellow students; perceptions of an orientation event; and preferences for a variety of technologies through which students access course materials. The findings tentatively suggest that students experienced their study as an integrated whole. While there was significant variability in individual preferences relating to the use of technology, expectations that different demographic groups would have different preferences were not supported.
Editorial: Open Access – Our Golden Route in Academic Publishing in an Increasingly Open World
Authors: Fields Alison J , Davis Niki E , Hartnett Maggie
Published: September 2023

Open Access (OA) publishing, that is the immediate, online, free availability of research outputs without many of the restrictions imposed by traditional copyright agreements, is changing the landscape of scholarly publications. The Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning is well positioned in the changing world of publishing with its focus on making high quality research in the Asia-Pacific region readily available to all. The recent inclusion of the Journal in the Directory of Open Access Journals highlights this commitment to accessibility. With that in mind, the three articles in this issue of the Journal explore the experiences of learners within three separate and distinct educational contexts in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Two of the articles are situated in the schooling sector where research on students learning at a distance is urgently needed to inform the development of more equitable practice worldwide. The third paper explores student engagement at the tertiary level, continuing the theme from the 2014 DEANZ conference relating to the ‘e’ in engagement. Using the article by Jeurissen as a focus, the editorial takes the time to highlight the role open, flexible and distance learning can play in the revitalisation of the New Zealand indigenous language, te reo Māori. The philosophy and methods of Open Access publishing are also discussed.
Researching possible futures to guide leaders towards more effective tertiary education
Authors: Davis Niki E , Higgins Andrew
Published: September 2023

This research aimed to inform institutional leaders by producing and disseminating a system wide view of what tertiary education might look like in Aotearoa New Zealand, five years into the future. The researchers were responding to a challenge in a speech at the DEANZ 2010 conference by a highly respected national leader (Dr Peter Coolbear). The outcome became known as the DEANZ2016 scenario set. Using JISC scenario planning methodologies, including interviews of 16 national and international education leaders, the scenario set was developed on an X axis depicting the tension between facing the academy vs facing New Zealand employers, professions and iwi, and a Y axis depicting the tension between standardized education vs customization to personalise learning. Each of the four quadrants aimed to expose and contrast potential future scenarios. These were entitled: Articulation, The 'Supermarket', Quality Branded Consortia, and Self Determination. Innovatively disseminated via the web, the DEANZ2016 website became the most popular section of the larger Ako Aotearoa website, which stimulated further research into uptake and impact of the project.
A Framework for Seeking the Connections between Technology, Pedagogy and Culture: A study in the Maldives
Authors: Adam Aminath Shafiya
Published: September 2023

Educational technology researchers often overlooked the impact of culture on teachers’ use of digital technologies in their pedagogical practices. This also includes a number of technology integration models (e.g. TAM and TPACK) that have failed to explain the connections between technology, pedagogy, and culture. This paper argues that teachers’ pedagogical and technological practices cannot be fully understood without considering the social and cultural norms of their specific cultures. This study adopted an ethnographic methodology, linked with Bourdieu’s (1977) habitus as a lens for exploring teacher educators’ practices in the Maldives. Data were gathered from eleven teacher educators who work in a Maldivian university context: using interviews, observations, focus groups and the hanging out approach. Key findings demonstrated that teacher educators’ pedagogical and technological practices were influenced by their own culture, early learning experiences in the Maldives, and their workplace (institutional context). Through this finding, this research proposes a framework, namely, Pedagogical and Technological Cultural Habitus (PATCH) for understanding teachers’ pedagogical and technological habitus in various contexts. The PATCH framework is, theoretically useful for designing technology-oriented professional development for professionals in various pedagogical contexts including virtual and blended pedagogical spaces. It also contributes to TPACK framework by adding an outer layer to its current theorisation to represent teachers’ backgrounds and habitus when examining their practices.
Using Online Lectures to Promote Engagement: Recognising the Self-Directed Learner as Critical for Practical Inquiry
Authors: Henrikson Robin
Published: September 2023

This study analyzed the relationships between teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence in online learning environments (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), with an emphasis on examining ways in which the design of instructor presentation formats relates to student responses within discussion forums. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to determine the nature of student responses, primarily through the lens of the Practical Inquiry Model (Garrison, 2007) by coding all text within the initial student responses to content-based questions. Twenty students were randomly assigned to two sections in a graduate level, teacher education course. One group was provided metacognitive prompts throughout the asynchronous lecture presentation and told to pause the presentation and document their thinking relative to the prompts. The other group was not asked to pause and write during the presentation nor were there any metacognitive prompts embedded within the presentation. A Pearson’s Chi-Square analysis was used to analyze the coding of the text and a form of text analytics was used to seek out the nature of student learning and cognitive presence. There were no significant associations found between the design of the instructor presentation and levels within the Practical Inquiry Model. Furthermore, the themes, number of total themes and word count also remained consistent between the two groups.
Social Presence and Online Communication: A response to Mersham
Authors: Kehrwald Benjamin
Published: September 2023

This article draws upon contemporary social presence theory and research into presence, social presence, and computer-mediated communication to highlight the role of social presence in mitigating the perceived deficiencies in online communication highlighted by Gary Mersham in the preceding issue of this publication. The case discusses issues of mediated experience, the development of interpersonal relations between online communicators, and the function of social presence. It concludes with advice for practitioners in promoting effective online communication in technology-enhanced learning.
Providing Students with Flexible and Adaptive Learning Opportunities using Lecture Recordings
Authors: Nkomo Larian M , Daniel Ben K
Published: September 2023

Lecture recordings are widely used within higher education as a means of engaging and enriching students learning, by providing more adaptable, highly flexible and convenient access to learning materials. However, educators have increasingly raised concerns that lecture recording availability contributes to a decline in students attending lectures. This study explores how students engage with lecture recordings and the extent to which they perceive access to these resources contributes to their learning. We administered self-reported measures (questionnaire) to undergraduate and postgraduate students (n=664) who had access to lecture recordings. The quantitative data were summarised using descriptive statistics. We then applied a sentiment analysis technique to triangulate and contest the results derived from the quantitative analysis. Overall, the results in this study indicate that lecture recordings can provide students with flexibility and convenient access to learning materials, and ultimately enhancing their learning experience. Most respondents regarded lecture recording as supplementary learning resources not a replacement for lectures; stating that the availability of lecture recordings did not influence their decisions to attend lectures. Respondents reported that they used lecture recordings to prepare for exams, revise and compare their notes taken in class.
Leveraging informal learning practices for broadening participation in university education: A Kenyan case study
Authors: Hawi Roxanne , Heinrich Eva , Lal Sunil
Published: September 2023

Kenyan public universities primarily provide classroom-based courses. However, socioeconomic realities limit many rural-based learners from regularly attending classes. Interestingly, because of the willingness of Kenyans to further their education, informal education is picking up fast. Individuals are forming informal learning circles and have proactively found ways to use smartphones to access online educational resources. This paper explores ways to leverage the strengths of these informal learning practices to enhance participation in formal higher education for Kenyans. One way this can be achieved is through blended learning. With blended learning, students will experience the convenience of online learning without losing the social on-campus interactions they are accustomed to. Currently, the use of blended learning in Kenyan public universities is not at the desired level. Lack of conventional computing resources (laptops/desktop PCs) due to economical constraints is a contributing factor. Given their widespread adoption, we suggest smartphones could serve as a viable platform for blended learning in Kenya. To explore this idea, a survey was conducted with 114 students in Tom Mboya University College (TMUC), a rural-based public university in Kenya. The survey examined students’ attitudes towards using smartphones in education. Results indicate smartphones are already an integral part of the students’ informal education and the students have a strong desire to integrate smartphones into their formal education. We envisage that our research will contribute knowledge towards the adoption of blended learning in resource-constrained university environments.
Transitioning the team: supporting distance supervised Doctor of Business Administration students through collaborative online workshops
Authors: Carr Sarah
Published: September 2023

Educational transitions are widely recognised as being key points which can influence a student’s later success. Transitions are not just limited to the beginning of a period of study, but can occur during this period. The adjustments which come with transitioning can be unsettling and isolating. These feelings can be compounded by the nature of the studies and distance from the place of study. This paper reflects on the importance of recognising that the transition from a student within a cohort to an independent thesis student can be relatively isolating for many students, especially for those who are studying at a distance. In an attempt to provide extra support and minimise the impact of isolation, team supervision was trialled for two groups of distance supervised Doctor of Business Administration students based in China. The model incorporated peer groups and research communities for students with similar research topics. Overall, the pilot was successful in supporting the students’ transition, but identified the need for flexibility to manage students who progress at different rates.
Improving Remote Teaching and Online Learning
Authors: Hartnett Maggie , Fields Alison
Published: September 2023

This issue of the Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (JOFDL) contains an invited piece from a well-known author in the field. The intention is to include an invited piece in subsequent issues. This contribution from Rick Shearer focuses on theory in open, flexible, and distance education. The choice of topic is timely given the experiences of emergency remote teaching (ERT) by teachers and academics over the last 18 months, and the prevailing view that online learning and teaching and ERT are equivalent. In addition to the invited article, this issue has four articles—a descriptive piece and three articles from presentations at the recent FLANZ 2021 Conference.
Definitions of the Terms Open, Distance, and Flexible in the Context of Formal and Non-Formal Learning
Authors: Atkinson Simon Paul
Published: September 2023

This opinion piece seeks to define and contextualise educational terms that are used, and appear to be misused, in contemporary academic literature and practice. It aims to explore the concept that these three words, open, flexible, and distance, fall into the categories of policy, mode of learning, and models of delivery. In the context in which the globaleducational community across all sectors adapts to new forms of learning, it is essential that practitioners agree on the terminology. Words have definitions, but they also have technical meanings and daily, commonplace, uses that sometimes defy those dictionary definitions. Words sometimes become symbolic, they are adopted by a specific community to cover a range of “sins”, and this use serves to normalise or induct new users into that community. The ability to twist and bend definitions to suit a specific context, to appeal to policy makers or funders, relies on some malleability, some ambiguity, of definitions. In the context of Boyer’s definition of the integration of research (Boyer, 1997), the purpose of this piece is to enable colleagues to decide how to best define and deploy existing, and validate new terminology.
Supporting English Language Development of English Language Learners in Virtual Kindergarten: A Parents’ Perspective
Authors: Shahbazi Sara , Salinitri Geri
Published: September 2023

The researchers of this case study explored English language learner (ELL) parents’ experience as they supported their children’s English language development in an online (virtual) kindergarten programme. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Then the researchers used thematic analysis to describe the participants’ lived experience with the phenomenon. Findings indicated that online learning increased the emotional stressors for parents of ELL children, and altered the communication between parents and teachers. Meanwhile, the use of breakout rooms reinforced the children’s language development, and translation services supported parents. Based on the findings, the researchers recommend that schools and boards provide the parents and families of multilingual learners with ongoing workshops to give them the tools and confidence to continue supporting their children in person and online. They also recommend a greater investment in translation services.
First-year Secondary Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of iPad Use on Their Learning in a BYOD Secondary International School
Authors: Watts Martin , Andreadis Ioannis
Published: September 2023

This study uses a statistical survey over three consecutive years to show how the first-year students of a mid-sized Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) secondary international school perceive the impact of using their own iPad on their learning. The students’ perceptions show awareness of the usefulness and challenges associated with using their iPads in school life as well as at home. The students indicate several perceived benefits relating to having instant access to a variety of learning opportunities via the internet. However, they also indicate the challenges of keeping a balanced approach and avoiding overuse of their iPads inside and outside school (e.g., for gaming and social media). The original rationale for implementing the BYOD scheme did not anticipate specific benefits for students’ academic outcomes (grades). However, academic performance has continued to be monitored to identify any adverse effects associated with the scheme. Students’ overall academic performance has not been adversely affected since the scheme was implemented.
PM2.5 leads to adverse pregnancy outcomes by inducing trophoblast oxidative stress and mitochondrial apoptosis via KLF9/CYP1A1 transcriptional axis
Authors: Li Shuxian , Li Lingbing , Zhang Changqing , Fu Huaxuan , Yu Shuping , Zhou Meijuan , Guo Junjun , Fang Zhenya , Li Anna , Zhao Man , Zhang Meihua , Wang Xietong
Published: September 2023

Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is associated with adverse obstetric and postnatal metabolic health outcomes, but the mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the toxicological pathways by which PM2.5 damaged placental trophoblasts in vivo and in vitro. We confirmed that PM2.5 induced adverse gestational outcomes such as increased fetal mortality rates, decreased fetal numbers and weight, damaged placental structure, and increased apoptosis of trophoblasts. Additionally, PM2.5 induced dysfunction of the trophoblast cell line HTR8/SVneo, including in its proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, migration and angiogenesis. Moreover, we comprehensively analyzed the transcriptional landscape of HTR8/SVneo cells exposed to PM2.5 through RNA-Seq and observed that PM2.5 triggered overexpression of pathways involved in oxidative stress and mitochondrial apoptosis to damage HTR8/SVneo cell biological functions through CYP1A1. Mechanistically, PM2.5 stimulated KLF9, a transcription factor identified as binding to CYP1A1 promoter region, which further modulated the CYP1A1-driven downstream phenotypes. Together, this study demonstrated that the KLF9/CYP1A1 axis played a crucial role in the toxic progression of PM2.5 induced adverse pregnancy outcomes, suggesting adverse effects of environmental pollution on pregnant females and putative targeted therapeutic strategies.
Carotenoid assembly regulates quinone diffusion and the Roseiflexus castenholzii reaction center-light harvesting complex architecture
Authors: Xin Jiyu , Shi Yang , Zhang Xin , Yuan Xinyi , Xin Yueyong , He Huimin , Shen Jiejie , Blankenship Robert E , Xu Xiaoling
Published: September 2023

Carotenoid (Car) pigments perform central roles in photosynthesis-related light harvesting (LH), photoprotection, and assembly of functional pigment-protein complexes. However, the relationships between Car depletion in the LH, assembly of the prokaryotic reaction center (RC)-LH complex, and quinone exchange are not fully understood. Here, we analyzed native RC-LH (nRC-LH) and Car-depleted RC-LH (dRC-LH) complexes in Roseiflexus castenholzii, a chlorosome-less filamentous anoxygenic phototroph that forms the deepest branch of photosynthetic bacteria. Newly identified exterior Cars functioned with the bacteriochlorophyll B800 to block the proposed quinone channel between LHαβ subunits in the nRC-LH, forming a sealed LH ring that was disrupted by transmembrane helices from cytochrome c and subunit X to allow quinone shuttling. dRC-LH lacked subunit X, leading to an exposed LH ring with a larger opening, which together accelerated the quinone exchange rate. We also assigned amino acid sequences of subunit X and two hypothetical proteins Y and Z that functioned in forming the quinone channel and stabilizing the RC-LH interactions. This study reveals the structural basis by which Cars assembly regulates the architecture and quinone exchange of bacterial RC-LH complexes. These findings mark an important step forward in understanding the evolution and diversity of prokaryotic photosynthetic apparatus.
“Europe in Africa”
Authors: Cleveland Todd
Published: September 2023

This chapter focuses on the range of touristic dynamics in the colony's capital city, Lourenço Marques, on which visitors from around the globe descended. It discusses the urban experiences of both tourists and Africans employed in the industry, the two entities that were vital to the remarkable growth of the sector over the course of the colonial period. The chapter argues that foreign tourists were drawn to Mozambique by an enticing mix of cultural, social, and entertainment features, but it was in the colony's capital city that these appealing aspects were most salient. In addition to considering Lourenço Marques' powerful allure for tourists, the chapter also looks at the city's increasingly magnetic appeal for Black Mozambicans seeking remunerative work, primarily to avoid either mine employment in South Africa or forced labor in the colony. The chapter then reconstructs the history of Lourenço Marques' hotel landscape and, more extensively, studies the experiences of African laborers in the sites where they most frequently interacted with foreign tourists: hotels and restaurants.
Palestinian Statehood in American Policy
Authors: Huggard Kevin , Wittes Tamara Cofman
Published: September 2023

This chapter looks into the notion of Palestinian statehood in American policy. Cold War competition with the Soviet Union spurred US engagement in Arab–Israeli peacemaking. Thus, American leaders could take on the role of mediator in successive efforts at Arab–Israeli peacemaking due to geopolitical conditions and its relationship with Israel. The chapter cites that Donald Trump's decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognize Israel's sovereignty in the Golan depicts the trend of seeking to make difficult-to-reverse moves in a partisan policy environment. The chapter considers how the US policymakers would be compelled to abandon the two state paradigm, referencing the possibilities of Israeli annexation of West Bank territory or a collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
Worlds Within and Worlds Without
Authors: Jackson Michael
Published: September 2023

The author of this book predicates his intellectual autobiography on the view that works and lives are intimately entangled. Through an interweaving of personal and ethnographic descriptions, the author focuses on the imaginative and practical ways human beings negotiate the space between worlds they call their own and worlds they regard as lying beyond their immediate purview. Whether the worlds that elude our empirical grasp are identified with divinities or the dead, ether or earth, history or myth, the Internet, or the nation state, we experience them ambivalently, as potential sources of wellbeing and as possible threats to our very existence. Closing ourselves off from the world is not an option, for our humanity depends on the ties that bind us to significant others, and others to us. As the book shows, the relationship between the familiar and the foreign is not only an existential issue that all human beings address in one way or another, it is a methodological issue for anthropologists concerned with the complementarity of individual and collective perspectives, ethnos and anthropos, the intrapsychic and the intersubjective.
In This Together
Authors: Krasny Marianne E.
Published: September 2023

This book explores how we can harness our social networks to make a real impact fighting the climate crisis. Against notions of the lone environmental crusader, the book shows us the power of “network climate action”—the idea that our own ordinary acts can influence and inspire those close to us. Through this spread of climate-conscious practices, our individual actions become collective ones that can eventually effect widespread change. Weaving examples of everyday climate-forward initiatives in with insights on behavioral and structural change, the book demonstrates how we can scale up the impact of our efforts through leveraging our community connections. Whether by inviting family, friends, or colleagues to a plant-rich meal or by becoming activists at climate nonprofits, we can forge the social norms and shared identities that can lead to change. With easy-to-follow dos and don'ts, the book shows us a practical and hopeful way forward into our shared future.
Informatica
Authors: Wright Alex
Published: September 2023

This book—the updated edition of the author's previously published work—continues the journey through the history of the information age to show how information systems emerge. Today's “information explosion” may seem like a modern phenomenon, but we are not the first generation—or even the first species—to wrestle with the problem of information overload. Long before the advent of computers, human beings were collecting, storing, and organizing information: from Ice Age taxonomies to Sumerian archives, Greek libraries to Christian monasteries. The book weaves a narrative that connects such seemingly far-flung topics as insect colonies, Stone Age jewelry, medieval monasteries, Renaissance encyclopedias, early computer networks, and the World Wide Web. It suggests that the future of the information age may lie deep in our cultural past. We stand at a precipice struggling to cope with a tsunami of data. The book provides some much-needed historical perspective. We can understand the predicament of information overload not just as the result of technological change but as the latest chapter in an ancient story that we are only beginning to understand.
Networks and Hierarchies
Authors: Wright Alex
Published: September 2023

This chapter discusses the Zuni system, developed by the people of the North American Southwest, which represented a solution to the problem on how to manage collective intellectual capital. The chapter highlights the accelerated production of global data and how the world's data stores expanded fiftyfold to an estimated forty thousand exabytes by 2020. It also describes profound social, cultural, and political transformations caused by the accelerated proliferation of digital media. The chapter points out how networked systems disrupt the old hierarchical systems that preceded them once they took root, considering the death of hierarchy as one of the most durable nostrums of the digital age. It explores the rise of the Internet, which signals the permanent disruption of old institutional bureaucracies and the birth of a new enlightened age of creativity and personal freedom.
The Web That Wasn’t
Authors: Wright Alex
Published: September 2023

This chapter focuses on the World Wide Web, which has left a lasting imprint on the trajectory of human culture. It reviews conventional histories of computing that celebrates the achievements of notable pioneers that paved the way forward toward progress and echo a kind of nineteenth-century positivism that is undergirded by the inherent superiority of the Anglo-European technocratic mindset. It also explores the emergence of the information systems in response to a particular set of social, political, economic, and technological circumstances. The chapter discusses the culmination of broader societal shifts of the internet revolution, recounting the growing flood of published data as far back as the 1890s that created the conditions in which a series of new knowledge management strategies emerged. It describes early networked technologies that shed light on how the web came to be and presented alluring visions of how things might have turned out differently.
Building Collective Leadership for Culture Change
Authors: Avila Maria , Rivera Aixle Aman , Perez Joanna B. , Knoerr Alan P. , Tornow Chai Kathleen , Vieira Philip A. , Sánchez George J.
Published: September 2023

This book shows how five community engagement research projects in the greater Los Angeles area were able to create more collaborative and participatory cultures in their academic institutions and nonacademic settings by using community organizing, research in action, and narrative inquiry. These projects focused on incorporating civic engagement into the work of scholars, creating a civic engagement minor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, integrating community-organizing practices within the Los Angeles Unified School District, and building a regional organizing network among civically engaged higher education institutions. As the case studies show, these projects succeeded because they took place in collaborative spaces where participants were part of designing the purpose, goals, and specific actions to create culture change. The book is a vital inquiry into the possibilities of collective interpretation of accomplishments among researchers and participants.
Documenting Impossible Realities
Authors: Coutin Susan Bibler , Yngvesson Barbara
Published: September 2023

This book explores the limitations of conventional accounts through which belonging is documented, focusing on the experiences of adoptees, deportees, migrants, and other exilic populations. The authors speak to the current historical moment in which the dichotomy between an “above ground” inhabited by dominant groups and an “underground” to which unauthorized immigrants, political exiles, and transnational adoptees are relegated cannot be sustained. This dichotomy was made possible by the illusion that some people do not belong, that some forms of kin are not real, or that certain ways of knowing do not count. To examine accounts that challenge such illusions, the authors focus on the spaces between groups, where difference is constituted and where the potential for new forms of relationship may be realized. By juxtaposing and moving between entangled realities and modes of expression, the book conveys the emotional experience of oscillating between being here and gone, legitimate and treated as counterfeit.
Bringing Identities into Postconflict Deliberation
Authors: Kostovicova Denisa
Published: September 2023

This chapter lays out the theoretical framework for thinking about how reconciliation informed by mutuality in the context of peacebuilding flows from deliberative interactions across ethnic lines. It argues that reconciliation after conflict results from good-quality deliberation and discursive solidarity during a transitional justice process involving ethnic adversaries. The chapter also addresses the gap in the scholarship on deliberation in divided societies, which reflects our limited understanding of the role of ethnic identities at a microlevel of deliberative exchange. As the chapter highlights, the gap has resulted from scholars' neglect of conflict dynamics and tendency to approach ethnic identities as speakers' fixed attributes while studying interethnic deliberation as if politics was not central to it. Finally, the chapter looks at how people enact their identities in interethnic interactions, which can provide insight into whether deliberators can forge solidary bonds across ethnic lines and offset divisive effects of identity politics, leading to reconciliation.
Outwrote as well as Outvoted
Authors: Minty Christopher F.
Published: September 2023

This chapter discusses the 1768 election in New York City and County for the colony's General Assembly. It begins by offering an introduction of the DeLanceyites' candidates before moving onto the faction's campaign strategies. The chapter focuses on their innovative use of print and the city's tavern culture to mobilize broad-based support from the city's considerable voting population. Ultimately, the election results had a demonstrable impact upon colonists' views of the DeLancey–Livingston rivalry. The 1768 General Assembly in New York City tested the electoral strength of Robert Livingston of Clermont and his family's interests. The political tide had shifted toward the DeLanceys, whose inclusive campaign had enabled them to communicate their ideas, organize support, and encourage partisan behavior.
Unite or Die
Authors: Minty Christopher F.
Published: September 2023

This chapter addresses how Alexander McDougall capitalized on the DeLanceys' inaction to mobilize support not only in New York but across the Eastern Seaboard. From mid-1774, New Yorkers' associations and loyalties were tested. Radical Whigs like McDougall and John Holt often sided with those who described themselves as patriots. Those who were establishment or moderate Whigs were forced to determine if they would move toward radicalism or go in the other direction. Meanwhile, a majority of the DeLanceys became loyalists. The chapter then looks at the First Continental Congress. New Yorkers' contrasting actions toward two different congressional delegations offer an insight into Manhattan's political climate. Both the DeLanceyites and McDougallites were attempting to influence, even control, the city's public spaces.
Peripheral Cosmopolitanisms
Authors: Ong Andrew
Published: September 2023

This chapter looks into the cosmopolitan nature of a seemingly peripheral Wa Region. Autonomy behaves as a bold assertion of self-reliance and independence, yet it is highly reliant on markets and regulation from the outside. Moreover, Wa Region's roads span two different boundaries that become the makers of place, creating a blend of freedom, refuge, distance, and containment. The chapter details the complex relations between people, such as Wa people (wazu) and Myanmar nationals (miandianren). It also discusses how porosity and movement are central to socioeconomic relations and the making of the autonomous polity, citing that dwelling, traveling, rupture, connection, regulation, and permission were part of the highland autonomy's endless dissonances.
The Life of Wisdom in Rousseau's Reveries of the Solitary Walker
Authors: Pangle Thomas L.
Published: September 2023

This book is the first complete exegesis and interpretation of Rousseau's final and culminating work, showing its full philosophic and moral teaching. The Reveries has been celebrated as a work of literature that is an acknowledged acme of French prose writing. The author argues that this aesthetic appreciation necessitates an in-depth interpretation of the writing's complex and multileveled intended teaching about the normatively best way of life—and how essential this is for a work that was initially bewildering. Rousseau stands out among modern political philosophers in that he restored, to political philosophy, what Socrates and his students (from Plato and Xenophon through Aristotle and the Stoics and Cicero) had made central—and that the previous modern, Enlightenment philosophers had eclipsed: the study of the life and soul of the exemplary, independent sage, as possessor of “human wisdom.” Rousseau made this again the supreme theme and source of norms for political philosophy and for humanity's moral as well as civic existence. In this analysis of The Reveries, the book uncovers Rousseau's most profound exploration and articulation of his own life, personality, soul, and thought as “the man of nature enlightened by reason.” The book describes, in Rousseau's final work, the fullest embodiment of the experiential wisdom from which flows and to which points Rousseau's political and moral philosophy, his theology, and his musical and literary art.
Neighborhood Service Provision
Authors: Tang Beibei
Published: September 2023

This chapter assesses how nationwide government programs are implemented at the neighborhood level across the country through two case studies: the provision of neighborhood care for the aged and service provision in newly urbanized neighborhoods. The analysis of the first case highlights the government's purchase of services, which outsources the provision of public goods and services such as education, healthcare, or infrastructure to private firms and civil society groups such as charities or other nonprofits. Neighborhood service provision in newly urbanized neighborhoods largely deals with the legacy and influence of previous village service provision. Both case studies suggest a trend of gradually increasing involvement of non-state organizations in government programs as collaborators or partners. Yet, even though non-state actors and organizations have gradually secured more flexibility in implementing government programs, they operate continuously under state control and government supervision.
Introduction
Authors: Trombley Justine L.
Published: September 2023

This introductory chapter provides a background of Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls. Marguerite wrote the Mirror as a mystical dialogue, in which various allegorical characters discuss how a human soul becomes completely annihilated in love and union with the divine. For many years, the remarkable success of the Mirror—its positive acceptance into late medieval spiritual reading—has been the dominant story in scholarship of its post-1310 career. However, where some readers saw passages that merely needed additional explanation, others, like those who burned Marguerite Porete, saw the “pestilential sickness” of heresy. Late-medieval theologians, preachers, inquisitors, and canon lawyers—none of whom knew of the Mirror's 1310 condemnation or the identity of its author—preached or wrote against the Mirror as a heretical text; some even physically destroyed it. Their attention this time was trained on copies of the Mirror in Latin. These Latin manuscripts tell another side of the Mirror's story: they reveal renewed persecution and condemnation of the Mirror, entirely in ignorance of its earliest troubles, and in some cases more than a century after those took place.
“Worthless, Deceptive, and Dangerous”
Authors: Trombley Justine L.
Published: September 2023

This chapter discusses the three manuscripts, detailing the reception of Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls in Italy and Germany in the first half of the fifteenth century as it appears in contemporary records. Particularly within fifteenth-century Italy, there is abundant evidence that the Mirror provoked not just suspicion but outright hostility, often from luminaries of the Observant movement. This atmosphere, however, coexisted with—and perhaps was fed by—a parallel one in which the Mirror was read and accepted with little or no concern, in a wide range of reading circles: lay, semireligious, and even within some of the most eminent and distinguished Observant religious houses and congregations. The chapter sets these controversies in a new light. It also provides the broader contextual background to the manuscripts that are analyzed in the following chapters, describing the environments out of which they may have been created and in which they may have been used.