bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ideas, Ideology, and Citizenship of Social Movements
Authors: Spanakos Anthony Petros , Romo Rivas Mishella
Published: May 2023

Scholarship on social movements and citizenship assumes that democracy is improved and social movements successful when popular actors receive greater recognition from the state and their claims have more impact in politics. These literatures have focused primarily on the strategic action, tactics, and organizational capacity of movements; how governments and states have responded; and how institutional structures enable, foreclose, and/or respond to such political actions. The insights derived from these literatures can be improved by giving greater consideration to the role of ideas and ideology. This chapter examines four cases of left-wing social movements in Latin America that have resisted neoliberalism and aimed at thickening social citizenship and “democratizing democracy.” The typology introduced here identifies social movements in terms of two core elements of popular sovereignty: (1) the location of the primary space for political activity of the movements, and (2) how much transformation of the state and existing political apparatus is sought. Examining ideology and ideas about popular sovereignty highlights important nuances between movements that might otherwise be grouped together. While the social movements share left-wing roots and anti-neoliberal politics, and make demands for recognition of marginal groups as part of a process of a thick form of citizenship, they differ considerably on how and where they rule. Understanding these distinct positions helps explain different tactics and outcomes of social movements following the third wave of democracy.
Afro-Social Movements and the Struggle for Racial Equality in Latin America
Authors: Dixon Kwame , Caldwell Kia Lilly
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines the struggle for racial justice and human rights by Afro-descendants in Latin America. It analyzes the rise of Afro-Latin social movements, Black consciousness, and Afro-civil society during the twentieth century, and how this led to important multicultural and constitutional reforms in Latin America. While Afro-descendants constitute a sizable portion of the populations of many Latin American countries and have made substantial contributions to the region’s development, they have often been invisible and erased in national histories and nationalist discourses. Afro-Latin American women’s activism and their gender advocacy is also central to the analysis in this chapter. In countries such as Brazil and Colombia, Afro-Latin women have been at the forefront of struggles for both gender and racial justice, as well as being central actors in struggles for full citizenship and democracy and against state violence. The concept of Afro-civil society is used to place Afro-Latin social movements within a theoretical and historical time frame. While Black resistance in Latin America has been ongoing for five centuries, this chapter mainly focuses on the last third of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first century.
Demobilization Processes in Latin America
Authors: Lapegna Pablo , Paredes Maritza , Motta Renata
Published: May 2023

What are the main dynamics and mechanisms of demobilization among Latin American social movements? What political and economic contexts create obstacles for their contentious collective actions? In which ways do the political economy, states, and political parties shape patterns of demobilization? Under which conditions do social movements decide to refrain from mobilizing? This chapter addresses these questions by zooming in on contemporary South America. It focuses attention on specific geographical and historical coordinates: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru in the context of neoliberalization in the 1990s and the “commodity boom” of the 2000s. It understands demobilization as a process resulting from interactions within and between social movements, and between social movements and other actors. Demobilization is not simply the absence of mobilization, as it assumes the previous organization of contentious actions of organizations that are still active. The study of demobilization requires focusing on the role of agency and strategy to better understand how social movements refrain from mobilizing to advance their claims and achieve their goals. The chapter discusses six mechanisms underpinning recent demobilization trends in Latin America: performative governance, institutional recognition, social conformism, dual pressure, taking sides, and the glocalization of protest.
Governmental and Non-Governmental Responses to Vulnerable Children in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau
Authors: Shibuya Tomoko
Published: May 2023

Out of 140 million orphans in the world in 2015, over 49 million children were in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region affected the most by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This chapter discusses the role of social protection policies, various types of alternative care, and measures to fulfill basic needs in ensuring the welfare of orphaned and vulnerable children in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Field research has revealed a marked difference in the way basic needs and psychosocial conditions are being addressed in the various types of alternative care situations in the two countries. Significant associations were found between the overall well-being of orphans and vulnerable children and their social situation in the community with respect to food, health, and education conditions. Implications for social policy and administration include strengthening the collaboration among governmental and nongovernmental actors to administer the required social support to the most hard-to-reach vulnerable populations in low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Evaluation Trends and Innovation in Africa
Authors: Triegaardt Jean D.
Published: May 2023

This chapter discusses trends and innovation practices in program evaluation that have developed on the African continent. It traces the historical evolution of evaluation and how Western thinking has influenced evaluation planning and practices. Human rights are at the core of analyzing and formulating social policy and thus provide a comprehensive and integrated approach to evaluation that aligns with international standards and conventions of social and economic rights. African approaches to evaluation within selected countries are discussed, including challenges African countries face. The chapter highlights the concerted efforts to develop an African-rooted practice of evaluation and independent evaluation capacity to support evidence-based policymaking on the continent. As a result of this effort, a multiplicity of evaluation developments has been spawned, contributing to a uniquely innovative African evaluation narrative.
The Developmental State, Export-Oriented Industrialization, and South Korea’s Social Security System
Authors: Yang Jae-jin
Published: May 2023

This chapter reviews the historical development of the Korean welfare state, with particular attention to Korea’s export-oriented industrialization (EOI) under the developmental state period of the 1960s and 1970s. Although EOI’s success has helped make Korea one of the world’s fully functioning wealthy democracies, the EOI approach’s sensitivity to rising labor costs also has created unfavorable conditions for welfare-state building. To avoid hampering international competitiveness, the state and business have tried to keep labor costs low by suppressing the labor movement, postponing the introduction of social security programs, and limiting coverage and benefits to minimum levels when they eventually had to be introduced. The state also devised a low-tax regime to increase disposable income, which helped relieve workers’ demands for higher wages and social welfare. Since democratization in the mid-1980s, the Korean welfare state has been growing from a very low baseline and on an unfavorable institutional template carved by the past developmental state. Enterprise unions’ parochial and myopic distributive demands were satisfied by affluent big business, and this in turn erased organized labor’s practical incentives to demand social welfare. Under simple plurality electoral rules, politicians as district representatives do not fully commit themselves to nationwide welfare programs. Presidents and presidential hopefuls’ pro-welfare initiatives are often constrained by unpopular tax-increase issues because they are worried about losing everything under the winner-takes-all system. Korea is likely to remain a small welfare state despite its status as a fully functioning industrialized democracy.
Corruption and Social Policy
Authors: Pellissery Sony , Bopaiah Partha
Published: May 2023

The Asian region consists of countries with unique configurations of political, economic, and social systems, and varying levels of economic and social development. Across such varied arrangements and outcomes, the issue of corruption seems to be all-pervasive and binding. This chapter attempts to understand the relationship between corruption and social policy in the Asian context. Through meta-analysis of existing literature, it first outlines the complex range of factors that underlie corruption in the region. The chapter then attempts to explain variations of outcomes in the region by closely examining the relationships between corruption and policy using regression models. The extent of corruption and quality of government are shown to have a significant impact on social policy outcomes such as health, education, and gender empowerment, but no significant impact on hunger, inequality, and poverty. As argued, the explanations for variation may lie in trust, the nature of social contracts, and political market imperfections.
Performance Measurement and Social Policies in China
Authors: Gao Jie
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines how Chinese leaders in the post-Mao era use performance measurement—the target responsibility system—as a key strategy to manage social policies in general and to maintain social stability in particular. This study shows that by strengthening local officials’ compliance with the policy directives set by the higher-level authorities and their responsiveness to citizen feedback, the target responsibility system effectively turns local leaders’ attention toward ameliorating social tension and conflicts. However, the system also motivates local officials to take drastic measures to fulfill required targets regardless of the consequences for the public interest. Paradoxically, those drastic measures can undermine the party-state’s goal of building a harmonious and stable society. China’s experience shows that performance measurement can be a convenient and sensible solution to acute sociopolitical problems when radical political restructuring is out of the question, but it comes with certain risks and costs.
Section Overview
Authors: Laforest Rachel , Hetling Andrea
Published: May 2023

Comparative social policy analysis enables an understanding of how context affects the implementation of public policy and its functioning in different social, economic, and political environments. The Canada-United States section of the handbook tackles how social policy governance and management is similar yet different in the two countries. (Mexico is covered in Section VI. Latin America.) This section overview provides an introduction to the section’s main hypotheses and findings on topics as diverse as institutions, finance, and innovation. Taken together, the section’s chapters highlight the complex relationships among multiple levels of government, the nonprofit sector, and commercial enterprises as well as the need for social policy programs in Canada and the United States, and arguably around the globe, to become further locally matched and culturally appropriate.
The UK Welfare State Since 1948
Authors: Powell Martin
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines New Public Management (NPM) in the major services of the UK welfare state (healthcare, social care, education, and housing), focusing on the Conservative (1979–1997); Labour (1997–2010); and Coalition, Conservative, minority Conservative, and Conservative (2010–) governments. It concludes that while the main story of the last 40 years or so has been the rise of NPM, the degree of NPM has varied over time (both between and within governments) and between and within sectors. Within the NPM paradigm, UK experience indicates that the well-known “3 Ms” approach has been more of a “2 Ms” approach with marketization and measurement broadly more important than managerialism. While it appears that that the United Kingdom (or more precisely, England) has been a leader in adopting NPM, as broadly claimed in the literature, another broad claim—that NPM is giving way to forms of post-NPM—is more difficult to substantiate.
A Collaborative Approach for Building Comprehensive Social Protection
Authors: Bronzo Carla , Cunill-Grau Nuria , Repetto Fabián
Published: May 2023

Collaboration across sectors and levels of government requires the building of institutional, technical, and political capacities, including public authority to legitimate and drive efforts toward integrated provision of social protection. Issues of collaboration tended to be neglected in the era of highly sectoral, self-contained import substitution welfare models in Latin America. However, with the targeted market-oriented reforms of the 1990s and the new expansionary wave of social policies emerging during the more recent leftward shift, the need to better understand the challenges of collaboration, and devise workable solutions, becomes paramount. This chapter examines challenges to and requirements for a collaborative approach to social protection that can address the growing complexity of social problems. Such an approach requires articulated policymaking across multiple sectors and all levels of government. The necessary degree of cross-sectoral collaboration depends on the complexity, nature, and scale of the desired objectives, and different management arrangements are possible.
Healthcare and the Public-Private Mix in Mexico, Chile, and Peru
Authors: Ponce de León Zoila
Published: May 2023

This chapter provides an overview of the development of the public-private mix in healthcare in Mexico, Chile, and Peru. It outlines the development of the private sector in the 1980s and 1990s when the public health systems in all three countries struggled to provide insurance coverage to the majority of their population as well as access to healthcare services. This situation prompted the coexistence of the public and private sectors in a system characterized by fragmentation. One of the main consequences of these fragmented systems is the high out-of-pocket expenditure citizens face. The governments of these countries have sought aid from private providers to guarantee access to healthcare services for their populations. However, the governmental purchase of private services still remains marginal in the three countries. The important role of the private sector in the healthcare systems of Mexico, Chile, and Peru in terms of provision, insurance, and funding resembles a common trend in the Latin American region.
Financing and Delivering
Authors: Palmer Geoffrey
Published: May 2023

This chapter traces the origins of New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme (ACC), and examines its implementation, including financing, administration, and development over time. Although the scheme has improved the plight of accident victims better than previous common law tort arrangements would have, it has not lived up to the original vision for it, partly due to several major and many lesser changes to its governance and administration propelled by priorities and commitments of governments that may not have understood the scheme’s original intentions. ACC has introduced fresh discriminations, such as treating injury better than illness or invalidity, which need to be addressed. Until they are addressed, social justice will not have been achieved.
Results Targets in New Zealand
Authors: Wolf Amanda
Published: May 2023

This chapter considers how a limited set of intermediate, numerically measured results targets worked in New Zealand to make significant gains relative to trend predictions in challenging domains of social policy. Target-based management featured a citizen-centric individualized focus, intensive data analysis, transparent communication of easily visualized indicators, and, in some cases, integration with an actuarial-based social-investment approach. Targets spurred adaptation and innovation, countering disincentives to multi-stakeholder collaboration associated with earlier policy design and administration. Efforts to improve the well-being of at-risk children from 2012 to 2017 illustrate the rationale, strengths, and limitations of New Zealand’s approach to using results targets to encourage practices that more tightly link activities in policy implementation.
The IAEA’s Critical Role in Nuclear Security
Authors: Findlay Trevor
Published: May 2023

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the key multilateral global nuclear governance body, describes itself as the ‘global platform’ for nuclear security efforts, with a ‘central role’ in facilitating international cooperation in the field. After initial contestation among member states about whether the IAEA’s mandate encompassed it, nuclear security has now been universally accepted as a valuable mainstream IAEA activity. Although states still insist that nuclear security is primarily their responsibility, the Agency’s programme continues to evolve and grow and can barely meet demand for its services. It has been particularly effective in promulgating recommendations for enhancing nuclear security at the national level and in advising and assisting states in striving for higher standards. Since the end of the Nuclear Security Summit process in 2016, the IAEA has taken on the role of principal conference convenor, involving a ministerial meeting and increasingly creative technical presentations and side events. The Agency faces the usual dilemmas of international organizations in being constrained by what its member states will allow and by financial and technical limitations. This can result in modest advances after painstaking negotiations and lowest-common-denominator approaches. With a more expansive mandate, sharper prioritization and evaluation of its activities, and guaranteed funding through the regular budget, the IAEA could make a significantly greater contribution to preventing nuclear terrorism.
Nuclear Security Culture
Authors: Holmes James R. , Khripunov Igor
Published: May 2023

People are the main players in the design, testing, maintenance, and operation of any security system, and their performance depends on each person’s capabilities, limitations, motives, and attitudes, as well as the quality of instruction and training provided them. This is explored in the chapter through the concept of ‘culture’, as a tool to support, enhance, and sustain nuclear security. The chapter reviews the genesis and application of nuclear security culture as developed and practised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA’s programme is designed to enable trained individuals to identify security risks, stay motivated, empirically evaluate the ambient culture, and adjust it to current and emerging needs. Because security culture constitutes a subset of organizational culture, it strives to improve the performance of the human component and make its interface with security technology and regulations more effective and user-friendly.
Nuclear Material Accounting and Control
Authors: Aghara Sukesh K. , Marzo Marco
Published: May 2023

International safeguards, implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), represent the major mechanism for reducing the risk of state-level nuclear weapons proliferation. Nuclear material accounting and control (NMAC) is one of the primary components of international safeguards. NMAC encompasses all activities undertaken by states and the IAEA to ensure accurate accounting and control of nuclear materials at civilian nuclear facilities and to reduce the risk of weapons-usable fissile material being diverted by states from civil nuclear facilities to weapons programmes. However, NMAC systems can also be used to enhance nuclear security, helping prevent the theft of nuclear material by non-state actors. The chapter describes the key elements of an NMAC system, with a focus on the application of NMAC to nuclear facilities. The chapter also explores the synergies of NMAC when applied to both nuclear security and safeguards, highlighting the benefits of an integrated system.
From “Made of” to “Made from”
Authors: Matsumoto Naoko , Hirakawa Hiromi , Nakazono Satoru
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines the emergence and development of lacquer production in Japan as the first evidence of an artificial organic compound. It discusses how the invention of pottery can be considered as a technological and cognitive precondition for it. Lacquer technology was invented as human-plant interaction increased in the warming climate of the early Holocene (ca. 7,500–8,000 cal bp). The invention of lacquer technology was a significant step forward in human history as it required a process of artificial and irreversible chemical change. In East Asia, pottery appeared in the final stage of the Pleistocene. It was also a new material created by mixing clay, water, various tempers, and firing over a flame. The invention of pottery reinforced the image schema of container and led to a new type of cooking: Stew with different kinds of food. These activities of making and using pottery may have prompted the invention of lacquer technology. Based on the archaeological evidence of pottery and lacquer in East Asia, the invention process of new material is discussed with reference to the environment, climate, material, sedentariness, and image schemas to gain a new understanding of the integrative relationship between mind, body, and material.
Fine-Grained Assessment of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury
Authors: Legg Nicole K. , Switzer Andrew C. , Turner Brianna J.
Published: May 2023

This chapter focuses on the use of fine-grained assessment approaches in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) research. Fine-grained assessment has enabled researchers to collect near real-time information about the proximal precipitants, consequences, and correlates of NSSI; test theoretical models in ecologically valid contexts; and further our understanding of the temporal sequencing of NSSI-related events. The chapter begins by discussing the need to balance benefits against the potential costs in the context of choosing the frequency, timing, and duration of study assessments, as well as measurement strategies for NSSI and other variables. It then considers some of the unique ethical and technical challenges that are inherent within fine-grained assessment studies. The chapter also offers recommendations for maximizing participant compliance and retention, navigating technological challenges, limiting recruitment or selection biases, and implementing effective risk assessments. Finally, this chapter explores frontiers in the area of fine-grained NSSI assessment, providing recommendations for future work and summarizing potential clinical applications of these methods.
Online Approaches to NSSI Treatment
Authors: Hooley Jill M. , Fox Kathryn R.
Published: May 2023

This chapter evaluates the online treatment of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Online interventions or mobile apps for the treatment of NSSI are still very much in their infancy. Some are based on existing treatment approaches such as dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and are designed to improve emotion regulation skills, interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness, and/or distress tolerance. Others seek to modify more novel treatment targets that have been implicated in the development and maintenance of NSSI. Online treatments also vary in how they are designed and used; whereas some are designed to be adjunctive to traditional forms of treatment, others are designed as stand-alone treatments. The chapter looks at the DBT Coach mobile application, the online emotion regulation individual therapy for adolescents (ERITA), therapeutic evaluative conditioning (TEC), and autobiographic self-enhancement training (ASET). It then highlights the ethical issues and challenges raised by online approaches to NSSI.
Opioid Craving
Authors: Bergeria Cecilia L. , Park Brandon
Published: May 2023

Craving is a clinically relevant but understudied and undertreated, component of opioid use disorder. This chapter reviews the concept of craving—a subjective, multidimensional construct—and discusses how the word “craving” has marked inter- and intra-individual variability in what it is meant to convey. The authors review the conceptualization of craving as anticipation of positive and/or negative reinforcement, as a loss of control, and as a preoccupation with opioids. The authors introduce important neurobiology, specifically the dopamine system, which has been strongly implicated with the experience of craving and aligns nicely with the aforementioned conceptualizations. The authors also discuss how different forms of craving may respond differently to pharmacotherapies, and introduce 2 potential types of medications (cannabinoids, adrenergic agonists) as promising targets for craving. Evidence of associations between cravings and occurrences or recurrences of opioid use is discussed. Essential to all of this is the measurement of craving, which is categorized as representing tonic (general) and acute (at the moment) forms of assessments. This tonic vs. acute conceptualization is rarely discussed but has important implications for the assessment of craving and the expectation of the measures being administered. Finally, the authors present excerpts from their own qualitative case study wherein persons with opioid use disorder were asked to explain craving in their own words. Ultimately, this chapter introduces the heterogeneity of this seemingly simple but actually highly complex construct and applies concrete categories that can be used to advance the understanding of craving and associated efforts to develop effective mitigation interventions.
Opioid Effects on Sleep
Authors: Ellis Jennifer D. , Mun Chung Jung , Finan Patrick H.
Published: May 2023

Sleep difficulties are pervasive among individuals chronically exposed to opioids, such as those with opioid use disorder (OUD) and/or individuals with chronic pain receiving long-term opioid therapy. This chapter reviews the comorbidity between chronic opioid exposure and sleep disturbance, including emphasis on the effects of opioids on sleep in persons with opioid physical dependence and/or chronic pain, and the neurotransmitter systems that are associated with those effects. We then synthesize a large literature suggesting that alteration of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis following chronic exposure to opioids may be a mechanism by which sleep difficulties persist among patients receiving long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain and/or patients with OUD. This section focuses on HPA function in the context of opioid use, opioids and circadian functioning, opioids and stress response, the role of the HPA axis in sleep, and the combined effects of opioids, HPA function, stress, and sleep. Finally, we outline the clinical impact of chronic opioid exposure on sleep and stress reactivity and recommend that providers treating individuals chronically exposed to opioids (1) routinely assess sleep disturbance and stress, and (2) consider adjunctive interventions that address sleep disturbance and stress, when appropriate.
Injectable Opioid Treatment
Authors: Oviedo-Joekes Eugenia
Published: May 2023

Worldwide, opioid use disorder (OUD) presents a major public health challenge, currently exacerbated by the opioid crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need to improve, innovate, and diversify the offer of opioid treatments to engage those currently still dependent on the illicit drug stream and who remain at greater risk of lethal and non-lethal harms. The provision of injectable opioid agonist therapy (iOAT) is feasible, safe, and effective for the treatment of OUD, and diversifies the available offer of opioid treatments to support service users in their recovery paths. Expanding the uptake of iOAT, within a person centered framework, provides an opportunity to engage clients with the health care system and to offer individualized care. This chapter reviews and synthesizes the available evidence to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of iOAT, and to place iOAT delivery, historically and presently, within a broader continuum of care available for those with OUD.
Psychosocial Treatment Methods
Authors: Peirce Jessica M. , Antoine Denis G. , Hammond Alexis S. , Kidorf Michael S.
Published: May 2023

Psychosocial treatments for opioid use disorder represent an important component of the opioid treatment infrastructure. This chapter briefly reviews the early history of psychosocial treatment of OUD in the United States to place the more recent history of empirical research into an appropriate context. It reviews the most common psychosocial interventions, categorized into atheoretical (e.g., peer support or mutual help groups) and theoretically driven strategies (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy, relapse prevention, motivational interviewing, behavior therapy, and mindfulness-based therapy) before describing the current state of OUD treatment from both a research and clinical perspective. Finally, several gaps in the field will be discussed, as well as recommendations to address them.
Access to Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder
Authors: Saloner Brendan , Gibbons Jason
Published: May 2023

This chapter examines issues related to access to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment in the United States. There are multiple points on the continuum of care where individuals with OUD experience poor access to care. About two-thirds of all people with OUD do not receive treatment, and among those receiving treatment, care is often insufficiently short and does not include highly effective medications. While the number of people in treatment and using medications has increased substantially, access remains a major challenge amidst an unprecedented overdose crisis. Current challenges reflect the historic underfunding and marginalization of treatment and the criminalization of people with OUD. Recent policy changes to improve the financing of treatment, decrease burdensome regulations, and make treatment with medication more widely available across different touchpoints, such as jails and hospital emergency departments, provide the greatest opportunity to improve access to care and promote recovery.
PS and Identity Among LGBTQ Media Users
Authors: Bond Bradley J.
Published: May 2023

This chapter discusses how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals relate to media personae, focusing on the critical value of parasocial relationships (PSRs) with LGBTQ media personae for identity development, sense of belongingness, and validation. LGBTQ media users may be particularly prone to PSRs with LGBTQ media personae as compensation for offline, face-to-face social support from LGBTQ others. The chapter reviews what is known about the representation of LGBTQ fictional characters and celebrities in media, investigates the application of theory to LGBTQ PSRs, and details the function of social media influencers as specific media personae likely to attract LGBTQ audiences. Unanswered questions about the development and effects of PSRs among LGBTQ media users conclude this chapter.
Effects of Parasocial Experiences on Health Outcomes
Authors: Hoffner Cynthia A. , Cohen Elizabeth L.
Published: May 2023

This chapter synthesizes research on the influence of parasocial experiences in audience health-related perceptions and behavior. Exposure to health messages may be part of routine media use or result from active seeking of health-related information and guidance. Drawing on research in the domains of entertainment–education, media figure health events, and strategic health messaging, this review discusses theoretical mechanisms of parasocial influence on health outcomes, including message salience and issue involvement, diffusion, modeling, overcoming resistance, social norms, and source credibility. After reviewing research on specific health outcomes (including physical disease awareness, prevention, and treatment; mental health/mental illness; everyday health behaviors; social connection and well-being; and public health outcomes), the chapter concludes with recommendations for future research.
Three Conceptual Challenges to Parasocial Interaction
Authors: Hartmann Tilo
Published: May 2023

This chapter takes a close look at the conceptualization of parasocial interaction (PSI), that is, users’ illusionary experience, during media exposure, of being in a reciprocal social interaction with a media performer (while objectively this is not the case). The chapter discusses existing conceptual challenges and boundary conditions and proposes future research avenues. A review of PSI theory reveals that a performer’s anticipated user response and implicit forms of address have been neglected in empirical research to date. The biggest conceptual challenge to the PSI concept, however, poses the “interactivity problem.” Do user interactions with online performers (influencers, streamers, etc.) and other characters in (at least partially) interactive settings still qualify as PSI? The chapter proposes that the concept can still be applied under certain conditions. PSI can be germane to interactive modalities if an individual user (a) feels like being in a reciprocal interaction with the performer; (b) feels like being directly personally addressed by the performer; and (c) feels as if the interaction is reciprocally intimate—while it can be demonstrated that these three qualities are objectively not true.
Methods and Measures in Investigating PSEs
Authors: Dibble Jayson L. , Tukachinsky Forster Rebecca , Guzaitis Madeline , Downey Sarah E.
Published: May 2023

To assist scholars in designing studies that have increased validity, this chapter provides an extensive review of measurement options and experimental manipulation of parasocial experiences (PSEs). First, the chapter offers a comprehensive discussion of 21 self-report scales for measuring general parasocial relationships (PSRs); various specific subtypes of PSRs (e.g., PSRs in children, political PSRs); parasocial interactions (PSIs); and parasocial breakups (PSBs). The strengths of each measure and questions pertaining to the measure’s validity, reliability, and appropriateness for utilization in different contexts are highlighted. Next, experimental paradigms and manipulations of PSI and PSR are reviewed, giving especial attention to validity considerations.
Gawwada
Authors: Tosco Mauro
Published: May 2023

This chapter focuses on the dialect spoken in the town of Gawwada and the neighbouring villages—Gawwada. It stresses that it is a member of the so-called Dullay variety spoken in the town of Gawwada and the neighbouring villages in southwest Ethiopia. Dullay is a direct offspring of East Cushitic, although an alternative classification grouping Dullay and Yaaku together has been proposed and further substantiated. I propose to call the groups made up of Dullay and Yaaku Peripheral East Cushitic. Dullay speakers have no overall term for themselves and the Dullay dialects are not endangered. This chapter then shifts to discuss the phonology of Gawwada, starting with the inventory of phonemes. It studies the process of affixation and reduplication in Gawwada, and notes that suffixation is the most common morphological mechanism. The chapter concludes by discussing adjectives, numerals, ideophones, and negation.
Somali
Authors: Nilsson Morgan
Published: May 2023

This chapter offers a brief description of Somali, a Lowland East Cushitic language with a rich tradition of oral literature, spoken by some 26 million people in several countries in the Horn of Africa. The chapter starts with brief information about the emergence of the written language and the standardization process, before outlining the phonology, morphology, and syntax. Characteristic traits of Somali phonology are its tonal accent and vowel harmony system. In the syntax, Somali’s focus marking system, reflecting information packaging structures, is especially noteworthy.
Classification of Ethiopian languages
Authors: Hudson Grover
Published: May 2023

This chapter deals with the genetic classification of Ethiopian languages. It emphasizes that northeast Africa is a region of great genetic and linguistic diversity, which is a principal difficulty in the classification of Ethiopian languages. This chapter shows that Ethiopian linguistics has seen great progress in recent decades which resulted in a growing number of languages identified, recorded, and described. Nevertheless, two languages in southwest Ethiopia that remain unclassified, so-called isolates: Ongota (Birale), on the verge of extinction, and Shabo (Mikeyir), with at most a few hundred speakers. The chapter concludes with a concise discussion of the general method of language classification.
Koegu (Muguji)
Authors: Hieda Osamu
Published: May 2023

This chapter tackles the linguistic features of Koegu, which is also known as Muguji. Koegu is one of the lesser-known and lesser-used languages in Ethiopia, especially since most of them have an Omotic language as their mother tongue and Koegu as a second language only. In the Kwegu–Muguji cluster, Koegu and Yidi shares the endangered language status, and they also contain enough similarity to be considered in a single language cluster. Koegu also has a few similar lexical items from Surma languages, which suggests genetic relations. Since Koegu is not a written language, it does not have an official orthography.
Majang
Authors: Joswig Andreas
Published: May 2023

This chapter presents the Majang language, which is found along the eastern border of the Gambella Region in Ethiopia. Majang is classified as part of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family, and it is the only member of Northern Surmic. Due to its inventory of only 18 consonant phonemes, Majang is considered to be unique in comparison to the other Surmic languages. These consonants have four places of articulation: labial, alveolar, palatal, and velar. Morphosyntactically, Majang comes with a split system between ergative-absolutive on one hand and nominative-absolutive on the other hand, based on the topicality of the actor constituent.
Uduk
Authors: Killian Don
Published: May 2023

This chapter describes the grammar of Uduk, a Koman language spoken on the borders of Ethiopia and Sudan by approximately 20,000-25,000 speakers. Uduk is compromised of three main dialects: Chali, Bellila, and Yabus, and this chapter is based almost exclusively on the Chali dialect. The description is based on thirteen months of fieldwork by the author between 2011 and 2014, and examines the phonology, morphology, and syntax. Uduk has a rich phonology; the main dialect of Uduk has 55 contrastive consonant phonemes, three contrastive tone levels, and seven possible tonal melodies on a single TBU. A complex interaction between consonants and tone has also given rise to a depressor consonant effect. In terms of argument structure and morphosyntax, Uduk displays morphologically marked cases for both Accusative as well as Ergative, depending on the constituent order. Uduk nouns exhibit grammatical gender, the assignment of which has extremely limited semantic correlations, including animacy and biological sex. Uduk verbs show multifunctional grammatical suffixes which mark either the location of an action or its internal aspect, and spatial deixis and aspect are heavily intertwined. Spatial orientation and location thus form a fundamental part of basic verbal inflectional categories.
Ethiopian English
Authors: Gensler Orin D.
Published: May 2023

This chapter presents a detailed structural account of the salient points of “Ethiopian English” (EE): English as it is actually spoken and written in Ethiopia. As far as I know, it is the first description of this sort. Although highly distinctive, EE is undiscussed in studies of African Englishes. There have been articles on “English in Ethiopia”, but these are almost entirely sociolinguistic in nature (variations on the theme “the role of English vs. Amharic in Ethiopia”). This study, by contrast, is heavily descriptive, structural and grammatical, and only minimally sociolinguistic. Methodologically, a major point is the phonological insight into EE to be gained by studying the nature of spelling mistakes. Typologically, in every sphere (phonology, morphosyntax, lexicon and phraseology), EE reveals itself over and over as a near-clone of Amharic --- a textbook case of substratal influence.
Language policy and planning in Ethiopia
Authors: Ado Derib
Published: May 2023

This chapter offers an overview of language policy and planning (LPP) in Ethiopia. The Language policy of Ethiopia can be divided into three main periods, namely (i) the era of Geez until the 19th century, (ii) the era of Amharic from the 19th century to 1991, and (iii) the post-1991 era which promotes all Ethiopian languages. Of these three eras, the post-1991 era has seen a lot of language planning and policy activities. More than 50 languages have been reduced to writing, and about 34 languages have become media of instruction or school subjects in primary education. However, these language planning activities have not been supported by strong language planning agencies both at regional and federal level. Recently, there is a move towards implementing a new language policy that introduces four additional languages as the working languages of the federal government and proposes the establishment of central language planning as well as regulating agencies. The implementation of such a policy, however, will depend on constitutional amendments, which is a very contentious issue in Ethiopia today.
Universal Cognitive Biases as the Basis for Supernatural Beliefs
Authors: Willard Aiyana K. , Turpin Hugh , Baimel Adam
Published: May 2023

What explains the ubiquity of religions across time and space, and why do these supernatural belief systems seem to have so much in common? Many cognitive scientists of religion have proposed that cross-cultural patterns in religious belief are, at least in part, the indirect result of reliably developing and otherwise adaptive features of the human mind. These ‘cognitive bias’ theories propose that religion is a by-product of universal mental architecture. Similar beliefs recur in unrelated cultural and historical contexts because of biases in how we perceive and interpret the word, and how we remember concepts. This chapter reviews the evidence, merits, and limitations of such theories. In so doing, the chapter addresses the most influential of the cognitive bias theories: the proposed relationships between various religious beliefs and Theory of Mind, anthropomorphism, dualism, teleological reasoning, and minimally counterintuitive concepts. Both the strengths and shortcomings of these theories in explaining religious belief are addressed and the chapter suggests future directions.
Cultural Evolution and the Economic Wealth of Nations
Authors: Atkinson Quentin D. , Matthews Luke J.
Published: May 2023

Whilst some nations thrive and flourish, others experience profound problems. Predicting how and why national fortunes vary is a major challenge for the social sciences. This chapter reviews research on the cultural evolution of economic development around the globe, including the relationship between development outcomes and linguistic and religious ancestry, and the relative contributions of cultural differences in technology, institutions, norms and values. The chapter highlights that while the causal relationships between these domains of culture are complex and yet to be fully understood, it appears the least tangible aspects of culture, our norms and values, are among the most resistant to change and are critical to the adoption of technologies and institutions linked to development over the long term. The chapter concludes with a discussion of implications of this work for policy-makers and suggestions for future research.
Self-domestication and the Cultural Evolution of Language
Authors: Raviv Limor , Kirby Simon
Published: May 2023

The structural design features of human language emerge in the process of cultural evolution, shaping languages over the course of communication, learning, and transmission. What role does this leave biological evolution? This chapter highlights the biological bases and preconditions that underlie the particular type of prosocial behaviours and cognitive inference abilities that are required for languages to emerge via cultural evolution to begin with. Specifically, the human self-domestication hypothesis was invoked to explain the evolution of modern humans, suggesting that many of humans’ distinctive traits—including language—are the result of an evolutionary process similar to that of animal domestication. This chapter proposes that prominent changes in human behaviour and ecology associated with self-domestication may institute the forces that shape the cultural evolution of language by enriching the opportunities for learning and teaching and by promoting communication and cooperation.
Cultural Systems
Authors: Jansson Fredrik , Buskell Andrew , Enquist Magnus
Published: May 2023

Many cultural phenomena cannot be understood by studying traits in isolation. Instead, they are embedded in webs of relations, layered with rich social meaning, and sequentially acquired and evaluated, filtered, in light of previously acquired traits. Incorporating multiple traits and their relations is needed to understand the organization, dynamics, and emergent products of cultural evolution. This chapter argues that a systems approach offers the potential for: (i) a more thorough understanding of the source and character of emergent phenomena, crucial for understanding the origin and historical development of culture; (ii) an increased scope of cultural evolution, whereby faithful transmission, self-organization and filtering of culture can be accounted for by systems dynamics, without the need for strong assumptions about innate machinery; and (iii) a more robust theoretical connection between cultural evolution and processes of development as they are studied in developmental psychology and related fields.
Rendering Justice
Authors: Bryant Michael S. , Sedgwick James Burnham
Published: May 2023

German and Japanese crimes committed during World War II became objects of criminal prosecution by Allied courts after the war. The best known of these trials was an international tribunal held at Nuremberg in 1945–1946. By the late spring 1945, Anglo–American predilection for summary execution of the “major” war criminals had yielded to a commitment to prosecute them. The trial at Nuremberg was among the first of numerous proceedings against Nazi war criminals throughout Europe. The Allied powers responded to atrocities in the war’s Asian-Pacific sphere with an array of post-conflict prosecutions. The long shadow of European courts obscures their Asian counterparts. Yet, Australia, Britain, Canada, Communist and Nationalist China, France, India, The Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Soviet Union, and the United States convened or contributed to hundreds of courts and brought thousands of war criminals to justice between 1945 and 1951. This enormous legal endeavor navigated complex logistical, geopolitical, and cultural obstacles. Despite allegations against both European and Pacific trials of victors’ justice and ex post facto prosecution, the Allies created new bodies of international law that live on today in ad hoc tribunals and the International Criminal Court.