bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Re-formed Landscape, c. 1100–c. 1200
Authors: Arnold John H.
Published: April 2024

This chapter addresses the impact of the Gregorian reforms on the south of France, particularly with regard to the experience of Christianity in a local setting. It engages with Florian Mazel’s suggestion that the Reform might be seen as a ‘total social phenomenon’ in which relations between lay powers and the Church were reworked very considerably; here, however, the focus is on what effects this had upon local churches. It is argued, against some earlier scholarship, that the shift of local churches from lay into monastic or episcopal hands did not necessarily have a major effect upon the provision of services to the laity: both because there was more activity preceding the reforms than some historians have noted, and because subsequent monastic or episcopal ownership was in the first instance more concerned with income than with the provision of pastoral care. The chapter also explores, via a converted layman called Pons de Léras, how we can see the wider circulation of ideas about apostolic piety in the twelfth century, noting in this regard the establishment of more Cistercian foundations, and Templar and Hospitaller houses, across the region. A study of surviving wills from this century also demonstrates some changes to lay piety more broadly, and discussion of certain ‘heretics’ in the early twelfth century further outlines wider shifts in lay concerns.
Towns and the Holy, c. 1100–c. 1250
Authors: Arnold John H.
Published: April 2024

The twelfth century also saw increased population growth and urbanization, these forming very important contexts for further developments in the lay experience of Christianity. In addition to the more rural Cistercian foundations, and those of the knightly orders, the twelfth century also saw the creation of many hospitals and leper houses in more urban settings; and the emergence of new religious groups that became labelled as ‘heretical’. From the viewpoint of the ordinary laity, these latter—the Good Men (known often as Cathars) and the Waldensians—are better understood as potential choices for almsgiving and as avatars of the holy, among a wider range of other choices, all adopting variant forms of apostolic piety. It is argued that in southern France, a region in which mercantile activity spread far down the social scale, aspects of apostolic example connected to poverty and wealth were received and negotiated in a particular fashion, aided also by its strongly ‘urban’ culture (even in quite small towns and villages). The surviving urban customs and statutes are examined across the region for what further light they thrown on changes in lay piety and expectations.
Papal Interventions, c. 1200–c. 1320
Authors: Arnold John H.
Published: April 2024

In 1208, Pope Innocent III called a crusade against the south of France. This chapter explores the context for that crisis, including slightly earlier moments at which the papacy sought to intervene via legates directly in the south, and argues that the logic of the crusade and the ‘peace’ it sought to establish was directed not purely against ‘heresy’ but via a new conception of how good Christian lordship should address various issues, including the widespread use of mercenaries, and the practice of usury. The subsequent establishment of inquisition into heretical wickedness is explored in some detail, and, by the mid-thirteenth century, its very considerable scale noted as having a fairly major effect on ordinary Christians’ experience of their faith. Overall the chapter traces a complex ‘reform’ of lay Christian society, involving the marking out of the Jews, the extension of ‘sin’ to mercantile activities, and the strengthening of ‘the parish’ into a system of episcopal governance
Responsibility, Health Care, and Harshness
Authors: De Marco Gabriel
Published: April 2024

Arguably, agents can be at least partly responsible for their unhealthy lifestyles and/or the health outcomes of said lifestyles. Health care policies that take an agent’s responsibility into account—for example, by reducing priority for treatment, increasing premiums, and so on—face a variety of objections. One of these is the harshness objection: the objection that such policies, and the practices they would justify, are too harsh in the ways that they hold patients accountable. This chapter discusses the harshness objection and evaluates different versions of it. First, I clarify some of the concepts this objection relies on, including “responsibility” and “holding accountable.” Making use of these clarification, I then distinguish between different versions of the objection, which object to different aspects of the policy and practices. Finally, I assess the strength of differing versions of the objection, as well as the strength of some responses to it. I conclude with some thoughts about how such policies will need to be designed to avoid the objection.
Responsibility for Ill-Health and Lifestyle
Authors: Levy Neil
Published: April 2024

Whether agents are morally responsible for their need for scarce resources is a difficult and fraught issue. In this chapter, I aim to explore some unappreciated difficulties for the attribution of moral responsibility for needs that arise from the fact that in typical cases, ill-health arises from lifestyle: not, that is, from one bad decision, but from a long-term pattern of actions. First, I hope to build on Brown and Savulescu’s (2019) programmatic exploration of what they call the diachronic condition on moral responsibility for ill-health. I will show that the diachronic condition fractionates in multiple ways, depending on how ill-health is caused as well as on the theory of moral responsibility at issue. Second, I aim to show that it is much harder to satisfy the diachronic condition on moral responsibility for ill-health than is widely assumed. I will argue that we usually cannot be confident that a particular agent (or a class of agents: say alcoholics) is responsible for their ill-health, and that—I will suggest—should make us hesitant to ascribe responsibility to them. Finally, I turn to an assessment of responsibility as a tie-breaker between patients. We might think that we need something far short of a reasonable doubt standard for responsibility to serve in this role. Perhaps a balance of probabilities standard can justify our using it. I will argue that even if we have the right to confidence on this standard, this may not be enough for responsibility to serve as a tie-breaker between agents in the context of the allocation of scarce resources.
Inequalities in Prospective Life Expectancy
Authors: Segall Shlomi
Published: April 2024

In the literature on responsibility and health care, many associate responsibility-sensitive health policies with a form of luck egalitarianism. On this view, if some health inequality is due to the choices, or responsible agency, of one of the patients involved, then it is not unjust, and we have no responsibility to compensate for it. If the inequality’s origins cannot be traced back to the patients’ choices, then it is not their responsibility, and thus it becomes society’s responsibility to compensate for it. This division of responsibilities between the individual and society applies not only to the past, but also to our responsibilities concerning the future. For instance, some luck egalitarians think that inequalities in life expectancy between men and women are unjust (Segall 2010) and should be compensated. Alex Voorhoeve has recently raised a new frontier in this debate concerning ‘prospective’ lives: the lives of those who will be born in the future. Against Voorhoeve, I argue that prospective inequalities are not a concern for egalitarians. This qualifies the claim that all inequalities not traceable to personal responsibility are unjust and suggests that there is no responsibility to structure society or our social institutions to avoid such prospective inequalities.
Porifera
Authors: Chipman Ariel D.
Published: April 2024

The sponges are multicellular animals with relatively simple body organization and a small number of cell types. They function by pumping water through the body and filtering out food particles. Water enters the body through pores formed by specialized cells known as porocytes and exits through a large opening known as the osculum. Choanocytes are cells that drive water circulation through the sponge body and trap the food particles. Food particles are digested by cells known as amoebocytes. The body is surrounded by epithelial cells known as pinacocytes and is supported by a skeleton that can be organic or mineralized. Sponges normally reproduce sexually and are hermaphroditic. They are also able to regenerate their body from a small number of cells, and can thus also reproduce asexually. In sexual reproduction, development of a fertilized zygote produces a free-swimming larva. The fossil record of sponges extends back further than any other animals, and extant sponges are believed to be similar to the first multicellular animals.
Germ layers
Authors: Chipman Ariel D.
Published: April 2024

The idea that the embryo and the adult animal can be divided into a small number of distinct cell populations or germ layers is known as the germ layer theory. The first of the germ layers is the ectoderm, which gives rise to the outer surfaces of the animal. The second is the endoderm, which gives rise to the inner surfaces. These two germ layers mostly generate epithelial tissues. The third germ layer is the mesoderm, which gives rise to connective tissues and support structures. The outer surface of the animal is known as the integument. It forms the boundary between the organism and the outside world, but also has many important roles in thermoregulation, in communication with other organisms and in sensing the environment. The inner surface is the digestive system. It is divided into a number of functional regions that are responsible for the different stages of digestion, from initial breakdown of the food to the absorption of digested nutrients and removal of undigested material. The structure of the digestive system is strongly dependent on the animal’s food source and mode of feeding. Animals can feed on suspended matter in the water column or can eat larger food items, be they other animals or plants.
Terrestrialization
Authors: Chipman Ariel D.
Published: April 2024

The sea is the cradle of life on Earth. Nonetheless, many groups of animals have left the sea and transitioned to life on land. There are many difficulties involved with this transition, the first and most significant is the need to prevent water loss, which can disrupt nearly all physiological functions. Beyond that, life on land, surrounded by air, affects the animal’s ability to support its own weight, the mode of locomotion, temperature stability, and other aspects of life. Terrestrial animals therefore have evolved a range of adaptations for preventing desiccation, for breathing, and for locomotion. There are several possible routes to terrestrialization. The most common is via tidal zones and area near the shore. Another route is via estuarine areas and fresh water. The current physiology of terrestrial animas reflects the path they took to terrestrialization.
Remittances and Political Accountability
Authors: De Vries Catherine E. , Doyle David , Solaz Hector , Tertytchnaya Katerina
Published: April 2024

Chapter 2 sets out the book’s central argument in detail and outlines our main empirical expectations. The argument starts with the income and insurance effect of remittances. It proposes that, due to the economic importance of remittances for the households that receive them, fluctuations in remittances will impact recipients’ economic evaluations and their ability to shoulder the burden of corruption. Fluctuations in remittances also impact recipients’ dependence on the state, leading to greater tolerance of poor public goods provision. When remittances increase, or remain stable, these three channels will translate into higher levels of government approval or at the very least, less of a willingness to sanction and punish the authorities for poor performance. Declines in remittances may lead to heightened incentives to sanction the authorities and to lower levels of government approval.
Remittances and Economic Evaluations
Authors: De Vries Catherine E. , Doyle David , Solaz Hector , Tertytchnaya Katerina
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines how remittances, as well as fluctuations in their volume, shape households’ pocketbook evaluations and perceptions of national economic conditions. The chapter explores two central claims: first, that remitted income may influence recipients’ assessments of their pocketbooks and of the national economy; second, that voters’ economic perceptions are also responsive to changes in remittances. Negative shocks to remittances, by harming household income, consumption, and saving patterns may dampen economic optimism. In contrast, positive shocks to remitted income, by heightening household consumption and economic security, may bolster economic optimism. This chapter tests expectations using rich, individual-level data collected across Central-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Leveraging evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic, it also demonstrates the important role that remittances played in enabling households to smooth consumption and bolster economic optimism.
Remittances and Corruption
Authors: De Vries Catherine E. , Doyle David , Solaz Hector , Tertytchnaya Katerina
Published: April 2024

The chapter extends the main focus of the book, which emphasizes the income effect of remittances and its political consequences, to argue that remitted income from abroad may lower the cost of corruption for recipients’ pocketbooks. It proposes that the pocketbook cost of corruption, which decreases when remittances increase, and increases when remittances decline, shapes recipients’ concerns about corrupt behaviour. The evidence suggests that changes in remittances shape these concerns among only certain groups of recipients: those who are older in age. Empirical insights have implications for the literatures on corruption, remittances, and migration. They also shift the focus of the existing, largely macro-based literature on corruption, to the individual level.
Final Remarks
Authors: De Vries Catherine E. , Doyle David , Solaz Hector , Tertytchnaya Katerina
Published: April 2024

This chapter summarizes the book’s key argument and findings. It also discusses the normative and policy implications of the book, focusing on the implications of remittance inflows for long-term political and economic development. The core message of the book is that the politics of recipient countries are increasingly dependent on wealthier, migrant host states. This re-enforces structural global inequalities and helps entrench a new form of political dependency. Although remittances may benefit recipients and migrant-sending economies, at least from a developmental perspective, they may also, at times, compromise the demand for accountable government in the developing world. Remittances could also serve to dampen migrant-sending countries’ autonomy. This argument is contrary to the one reached by many studies that view remittances as a panacea for development.
Governing Cross-Border Data Flows
Authors: Yakovleva Svetlana
Published: April 2024

This book explores how the European Union can reconcile and pursue simultaneously two important legal and policy objectives, namely, on the one hand, protecting fundamental rights guaranteed under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU Charter) concerning privacy and personal data and, on the other hand, maintaining and developing a binding rules-based global trading system to ensure appropriate access to foreign digital markets for EU businesses. The book first demonstrates that there is a real clash between international trade law and European data privacy law when it comes to the governance of cross-border flows of personal data. To resolve the tensions caused by this clash, the book proposes concrete and detailed ways to ameliorate the situation from both ends (international trade and personal data protection), specifically through reforms of both international trade and Chapter V of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To explain how such reforms could be effectuated, the author also looks at the role of discourse in the evolution of trade law in the last two decades. The book also paves the way for further research necessary to design a fully-fledged reform proposal of the EU framework for transfer of personal data outside the EEA.
Imagining the Eternal Village
Authors: Lystra Karen
Published: April 2024

Terse or expansive in their descriptions, reassured or distressed in their judgments, many working-class correspondents focused on the individual death. This included working-class soldiers during the Civil War who often stripped away the hazy filters of middle-class conventions in their honest and blunt accounts. Others, however, placed single deaths in a larger context of community life. Americans were exposed to the constant loss of children as well as the deaths of young adults on an unprecedented scale during the Civil War. Belief in the afterlife was a crucial coping mechanism. The working-class version of heaven was a utopian future where sickness, sorrow, and pain would be banished. Its central attraction was meeting family and friends and belonging to a community—in a state forever unchanged. Reflected in the mirror of death was the most intense emotional expression in working-class letters: a painful yearning for personal attachment without loss.
Queen of Proofs and the Kings of Torment
Authors: Sandhya Shaifali
Published: April 2024

Chapter 4, “Queen of Proofs and the Kings of Torment: Psychological Sequelae of Torture,” defines torture and discusses its mental health ramifications, such as somatic overload, memory impairment, chronic pain, and substance abuse, as well as torture’s utility for oppressive regimes. Socio-structural factors, such as gender, ethnicity, culture, and geography, can affect the prevalence of torture and posttraumatic stress. Survivors of torture are a high-risk group with chronic conditions that can affect their personalities, quality of life, and integration. Described as a silent epidemic sweeping the world, for many forcibly displaced populations, the presence of a history of torture can punctuate survivors’ daily lives with debilitating mental and physical ailments and augur difficulties in their intimate relationships. Through examples of institutions, this chapter urges our attention to complicities created through the apparatuses of torture in the form of insidious institutional practices and efforts to co-opt the support of health professionals. The chapter highlights necessary steps toward the holistic rehabilitation of survivors of torture in accordance with their human rights and States’ obligations to document and investigate their ill-treatment.
Enrique Iglesias Goes German
Authors: Sandhya Shaifali
Published: April 2024

Chapter 5, “Enrique Iglesias Goes German: Identity Politics and Identity Repair,” explores how extreme suffering and crises can shape individual and collective identity. The cultural and cognitive perspectives of identity development utilize the assumption that individuals access their own experiences—however, in persecutory conditions, trauma can obstruct access to important aspects of the self. The chapter proposes a pragmatic perspective of identity development that depicts the refugee as an active agent of self-creation vested in repairing and reinventing their identity. Constructing refugee identity can occur through reframing, deploying and negotiating social categories (e.g., ethnicity, religion, nationality, race, and culture) and networks (transatlantic or within host communities). Identity may be reconceptualized as nonstatic and fluid, which also suggests its ability to help mount unsurpassable challenges in trauma, and this could play a positive role for refugees’ welfare.
Best Practices in Treating Trauma and Refugee Care
Authors: Sandhya Shaifali
Published: April 2024

Intervention contexts, from refugee camps to the clinics of resettled nations, are volatile, under-resourced, overstretched, and imbued with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness of refugee patients and often of practitioners. In addition to treatment gaps, other shortcomings in the care of refugees include an absence of rapid, phase-based, and coordinated care and the disconnection of trauma from its contexts of history, geography, and social position. Chapter 10, “Best Practices in Treating Trauma and Refugee Care: The Ecology of Trauma-Informed and Cultural Health Interventions,” proposes incorporating insights from both culture-based and evidence-based research to design clinically relevant and culturally sensitive interventions for conflict-affected populations. Engaging cultural and evidence-based discourses so they mutually enrich each other can be done at different levels, such as psychopharmacologic and psychotherapeutic, with cognitive therapies such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and cognitive processing therapy, brief manual-based trauma therapies, and prolonged exposure therapy, and others like narrative exposure therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing systems, and community-centered and somatic therapies. The chapter discusses the development of cultural knowledge, skills, and awareness at five levels: provider and treatment, humanitarian, detention or extrajudicial, institutional, and community of host countries. Included are interviews from government officials, agency directors, and managers of prominent refugee camps around the status of mental health in humanitarian settings.
Epilogue
Authors: Sandhya Shaifali
Published: April 2024

The toll of failing to elevate refugee mental health at the personal, communal, and international level is immense, sprawling, and growing, and the stakes could not be higher for the world’s refugees—and for the rest of us. The epilogue discusses the global need to address consciously and proactively the fallout from trauma or posttraumatic stress in displaced populations to improve their health outcomes at all levels, maximize the impact of public health resources, and encourage stability and prosperity for all. It charts out 10 systems-level and refugee-centered initiatives toward the better integration of refugees and the upliftment of their mental health. With timely and strategic investments in their mental health, refugees are more likely to become not just stronger individuals, but also stronger nation-building partners, workers, residents, and citizens.
Women and OUD
Authors: Ukockis Gail
Published: April 2024

Chapter 6 focuses on women affected by the opioid crisis, especially those who become pregnant while using drugs. The criminalization of pregnancy has emerged as a reproductive justice issue because women who need treatment are arrested instead. Reproductive justice is defined here as the social context such as access to healthcare. The chapter also discusses how the “crack baby” myth of 30 years ago still affects policymakers today. Human trafficking is also linked to drug use, an intersection which has been worsened by the opioid crisis. The last section, women in prison, discusses how the War on Drugs has resulted in the mass incarceration of women.
Green and Blue
Authors: Loew Peter Oliver
Published: April 2024

Chapter 2 traces the city’s history from its earliest recorded mention in 997 to its nearly complete destruction in 1308. The chapter gives the likely locations of the earliest settlement, landmarks, and fortress as well as the development of the city, its already relatively diverse population, and their daily lives. Gdańsk exchanged hands a number of times during this period and, because of its geographical location, which was ideal for trade as well as defense, soon became a desired prize for a number of nearby larger powers including the margraves of Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights. Disputes over Gdańsk led to a number of conflicts, culminating in the “Gdańsk Bloodbath” inflicted by the Teutonic Order upon its conquest and destruction of the city in 1308.
Brick-Red
Authors: Loew Peter Oliver
Published: April 2024

Chapter 3 recounts the city’s nearly 150 years under the rule of the Teutonic Knights. As the Teutonic Order rebuilt the city following the “Gdańsk Bloodbath,” the population increased rapidly and became almost entirely German. This would remain so for over seven centuries, during which the city would be known primarily by its German name of Danzig. Under the stifling rule of the Teutonic Knights, the city was finally able to win greater political and economic autonomy when it gained membership in the powerful Hanseatic League. Danzig’s struggle to cast off Teutonic rule culminated when, along with other German cities making up what was known as the Prussian Confederation, it made an appeal (and ultimately agreed to subject itself) to the Polish crown.
Against a Red Background
Authors: Loew Peter Oliver
Published: April 2024

Beginning with the end of the First World War, chapter 7 finds Danzig a “Free City” to be administered by the League of Nations. Amid the severe economic crises of the 1920s and early 1930s, political developments in the almost entirely German-speaking Free City mirrored those in the Weimar Republic and then the Third Reich. Political opponents were systematically eliminated through violence and intimidation, and the persecution of minorities, in particular Danzig’s Jewish community, increased. The Second World War began as German battleships bombarded the Polish munitions depot on the Westerplatte on September 1, 1939. Danzig enthusiastically joined Germany, and life generally went on as usual, with the city and many of its inhabitants playing their quiet roles in Nazi crimes. The Red Army took the city in March 1945, and shortly thereafter, Danzig became the Polish (and Soviet) city of Gdańsk.
Introduction
Authors: Hildebrand Pierrick
Published: April 2024

ToCome
Testamental Discontinuity, 1519–1525
Authors: Hildebrand Pierrick
Published: April 2024

The first chapter covers the period from Zwingli’s arrival in Zurich in 1519 to mid-1525 and assesses the Reformer’s use of covenantal terminology in his early writings. The relevant texts, which address the sacraments, both eucharist and baptism, reveal the immediate, often polemical context for the development of Zwingli’s theological thinking on the covenant. The Reformer’s use and understanding of covenantal terms lead us to conclude that during this period he still thought in terms of “testamental discontinuity.” For the Reformer, the biblical narrative of the old and new testaments related two fundamentally different testaments, holding an antithesis between law and grace.
Mutual Influence, to 1534
Authors: Hildebrand Pierrick
Published: April 2024

In 1523 Bullinger followed a call, perhaps mediated by Zwingli, to become schoolmaster at the Cistercian abbey of Kappel. The close relationship between the two Reformers that followed led to mutual influence with respect to theological concerns, including the covenant. This chapter demonstrates Bullinger’s reception of Zwingli’s basic insights in his writings from 1525 onward. The sources show, however, that from early on Bullinger developed the covenant into an overarching locus, for it was applied to a variety of literary genres and theological matters. The period considered in this chapter culminates with the publication of De testamento (1534), a writing entirely dedicated to the covenant.
Epilogue
Authors: Hildebrand Pierrick
Published: April 2024

The close reading and intertextual approach offered in this study have shown for the first time the clear influence of Zurich on the development of the Reformed covenantal tradition in Geneva and Heidelberg. This study not only nuances and corrects preceding narratives but also opens up paths for further research from historical-theological perspectives. If Zurich, which stood at the beginning of Reformed covenant theology, still exercised influence at an early stage of Reformed confessionalization, how might this influence have looked for the later stages of the Reformed tradition? Zwingli’s and Bullinger’s names may have fallen into oblivion in the seventeenth century, but the covenantal elements they had initiated and shaped remained.
Choosing a Research Question
Authors: Lynch Julia
Published: April 2024

This chapter addresses how to choose a research question. A research question, as distinct from a broader research topic, is the specific problem that researchers are trying to shed light on through the inquiry they conduct for a specific product (paper, thesis, article, book). The chapter discusses advantages and disadvantages of several different types of research questions: those that seek primarily to fill gaps in the literature; those that are driven by the researcher’s methodological skills; those animated mainly by interest in a particular problem. It also discusses the important role of our puzzles and of passions, both positive and negative, in the choice of research questions. Because no one type of question is optimal for all situations, the best research question for the researcher is likely to be the one that meets their specific needs as a scholar and as a person. However, all good research questions share a characteristic discussed in the final section of the chapter: they provide enough analytic leverage to be worth pursuing.
Preparing an Interpretive Research Design
Authors: Schwarz Tanya B , Reiling Carrie
Published: April 2024

While all research designs have similar foundational components, research designs for interpretive projects include additional features and challenges that must be properly addressed and accounted for. Interpretive researchers not only grapple with how to articulate their concepts and research questions clearly while still allowing room for maximum theoretical and logistical flexibility, they must also hone their communication skills to ensure that their unique approaches are properly supported. This chapter examines designing and completing interpretive research projects in peacebuilding and international relations to highlight some of the key features and challenges of an interpretive research design. It summarizes the central epistemological assumptions and approaches of interpretive research, explains how those perspectives shape the research design, and discusses potential challenges of creating a research design for interpretive research and how to address those difficulties.
Developing a Flexible Data-Collection Plan
Authors: Mayka Lindsay , Rich Jessica A. J.
Published: April 2024

Qualitative researchers generate a lot of data as they read, interview, interpret, and/or observe. This chapter provides strategies for thinking through the varied uses of one’s data. These strategies need to be considered before data collection begins, but they also need to be reconsidered throughout the data-collection process. This chapter will address three key questions researchers confront as they develop and update their data-collection strategy. First, what are the researcher’s objectives and priorities in data collection? Second, how can the researcher ensure their data is valid? Finally, how can the researcher make their data useful for multiple projects? This chapter explores why each question is important, and it gives practical tips for how to approach them based on concrete examples of fieldwork.
Interviewing Elites
Authors: Li Lantian
Published: April 2024

It is especially challenging to access and interview elites since they tend to possess more power than researchers. However, if done properly, elites’ testimonies can be uniquely helpful in uncovering the origins of social problems or public policies. This chapter discusses strategies about how to choose sampling methods for different types of elite interviews, how to gain access to elites according to their spheres of influence, how to adapt positioning strategies according to the elite interviewee’s identity, how to mitigate the power asymmetry between interviewees and researchers, and how to navigate some logistical and practical challenges during fieldwork.
Focus Groups
Authors: Cyr Jennifer
Published: April 2024

Focus groups are incredibly useful for getting at different types of information. When certain issues or concepts are discussed in a social setting—that is, in a focused, group conversation—rich, nuanced, and multilayered ideas about the topics of interest can emerge. Like all data collection methods, focus groups are well suited for certain types of research questions. This chapter seeks to help researchers decide if focus groups are useful for their research project. It also provides tips on how to execute focus groups, with an emphasis on moderating and the question protocol. Finally, it addresses some of the challenges commonly associated with focus groups.
Locating and Working with Historical Data
Authors: Kim Diana S.
Published: April 2024

Qualitative research utilizing historical data is inextricably tied to the practice of archival research. This chapter introduces strategies for navigating archives that address analytical challenges that accompany the act of collecting records about the past and transforming them into evidence for qualitative analyses. It familiarizes researchers with key terminology and the organizational structure of archives that enable effective use of metarecords (such as a finding aid, index, and research guide). It also explains how researchers may locate, collect, and analyze records in ways that anticipate potential biases (such as source bias, survival bias, reinforcement bias, transfer bias, and digitization bias).
Content Analysis
Authors: Rucks-Ahidiana Zawadi
Published: April 2024

Researchers interested in language and how it is used often take a content analysis approach. Sometimes called “text analysis,” this method can be used to uncover the underlying assumptions, stereotypes, and assessments in the language people use, particularly when working with a large quantity of qualitative sources. Using searches to identify words and phrases in documents, researchers can investigate how data sources describe people, places, or social issues to uncover and analyze underlying value judgments. Approaching the process with content analysis can also be used to identify where to apply more time intensive handcoding in a large qualitative dataset. This chapter describes two ways to implement content analysis (using text searches without and with a qualitative data analysis software package) with an approach that engages the context in which words and phrases are used.
Comparative Historical Analysis
Authors: Singh Prerna
Published: April 2024

Comparative historical analysis (CHA) is a long-standing, influential research tradition, which has generated foundational texts of political science and sociology as well as 20th-century “classics.” It continues to foster scholarship committed to asking “big” questions of substantial real-world importance and developing, in response, novel theoretical frameworks that push beyond conventional wisdoms. CHA’s theory is inductively developed through in-depth case study comparisons of a small number of cases. It prioritizes historical narratives that explicitly and meticulously detail the sequence and ways in which a configuration of factors influences their chosen outcome. CHA is committed not just to establishing but also to unpacking the how of a causal relationship.
Postscript
Authors: Chung Kyungbae , Gilbert Neil
Published: April 2024

The COVID-19 pandemic led many countries to implement significant fiscal measures to provide relief to their citizens suffering from the pandemic’s economic disruption. In Korea, the emergency basic income has primed public opinion for a general expansion of income maintenance programs, such as Universal Basic Income (UBI). The ruling Democratic party’s leading progressive candidate in the 2022 Korean presidential election, Lee Jea-myung, has championed UBI. He proposed establishing a UBI for all Korean citizens, starting with an annual payment of 250,000 won per person, with the ultimate goal of providing a monthly income of 500,000 won to the entire population, thus mitigating the displacement of jobs in the digital economy. Those who support UBI see many immediate benefits related to the decommodification of labor, by alleviating poverty and inequality and lowering administrative costs that are typically associated with conventional means-tested social welfare programs. However, those who oppose UBI fear that it could create a formidable disincentive to work.
Introduction Aporias and Affordances
Authors: McDaniel Justin Thomas
Published: April 2024

The introduction provides the context of the first meeting of the religious studies, theology, and human flourishing project. Divided into two sections, Aporias and Affordances, it describes the divisions in methodological and conceptual approaches of positive psychology, psychometrics, religious studies, and theology. It identifies some of the problems that faced methodological differences among scholars of these diverse fields, as well as pointing to new collaborative and theoretical approaches. It also shows the creative ways the collection of scholars from a dozen different institutions brought together these widely divergent fields. The introduction also introduces the scholars, offers short descriptions of their chapters, and suggests future research agendas.
Disenchantment with Disenchantment
Authors: Charry Ellen T.
Published: April 2024

For Augustine and many other people, the fruit of self-examination is better care for others. However, care for others is care of self. Indeed, care for others, loving others well in ways that enhance their well-being, not only enables more people to contribute usefully to the common good. It is the healing of the soul that builds up true excellence for the enjoyment of and satisfaction with the self. To care for others is ultimately to grow toward becoming what Augustine believes God truly means for people to become: loving as God is loving, beautiful as God is beautiful, and wise as God is wise. The therapeutic dynamic is both from without to within and from within again outward. Augustine’s hope is that people will mature into adept and agile love and become less curved in on themselves for both their own well-being and that of others.
Fighting Spirit
Authors: Weitzman Steven
Published: April 2024

The field of positive psychology has been making a scientific case for religion as a way to cultivate well-being, but its claims about religion have also provoked a fair amount of skepticism. This chapter explores positive psychology’s approach to religion by looking at a case study—the US military’s embrace of “spiritual fitness training” as a way to cultivate soldiers’ well-being and resilience. What can be learned from it about positive psychology’s approach to spirituality/religion? Has it revealed any shortcomings with that approach? This chapter will explore these questions in an effort to promote a deeper dialogue between positive psychology and the academic field of religious studies, drawing on the latter not just as a source of knowledge about religion but as a way to think about the hidden costs of applying academic ideas to people’s religious lives.
Introduction
Authors: Tanyag Maria
Published: April 2024

This chapter sets out the research question and aims of the book. It begins by reflecting on how inequalities in mortality disproportionately affect women and girls in low to middle-income countries and in fragile, humanitarian and emergency contexts. The chapter outlines sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), placing them within a dynamic and evolving international human rights framework seeking to address the fact that women and girls face extensive forms of discrimination, which serve as fundamental barriers to human dignity and impede the equal sharing of responsibility between men and women and society as a whole. The chapter then details the range of data sources, methods, and analysis employed in the book, presents its approach, and outlines its overall structure.
Crisis and the Global Political Economy of Sexual and Reproductive Health
Authors: Tanyag Maria
Published: April 2024

Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background to the book and discusses its synthesis of different feminist perspectives to explain the global political economy of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in crisis settings. The chapter draws on analysis of women’s bodies and social reproduction in the Philippines to unpack the neoliberal logic of depletion and its main elements. Social reproduction, and women’s bodies in particular, enables the material conditions for both violence and peace. This chapter lays the conceptual and analytical foundations to the central claim advanced in this book—restrictions to SRHR are not incidental but rather integral to the reproduction of a patriarchal global order.
The Household as a Site of Depletion
Authors: Tanyag Maria
Published: April 2024

Chapter 2 examines the household as the first site of bodily depletion. Feminist research in international relations (IR) has emphasized how gender relations beginning in the household are causal to more global forms of violence and insecurity. This chapter uses examples of displacements, both protracted and rapid onset, in the Philippines to show how crisis is embodied by the intensification of women’s care and domestic work and their related exposure to forms of sexual and gender-based violence. Illustrating the connections between women’s status within the household and macro-level political and economic processes is critical to challenging misconceptions regarding sexual and reproductive health as narrowly about family planning, maternal and child health, or responsible parenthood as opposed to the more expansive framework of bodily autonomy.
The Global Crisis of Religious Fundamentalisms
Authors: Tanyag Maria
Published: April 2024

Chapter 5 turns to the drivers of bodily depletion at the global level by examining the role of religious fundamentalisms. Religious fundamentalist actors are not simply reactionary. They have evolved their own global political project and constitute a growing influence in crisis settings. Fundamentalist actors are brought together by a shared resistance to the rights of the body, sexuality, and pleasure—the encapsulation of all that goes against their pro-family, pro-life and pro-tradition agenda. Religious fundamentalists have developed an agenda framed by the language of “pro-life,” “traditional values,” and “protection of the family” at global and national levels, and established crisis and emergencies as vital fronts in opposing sexual and reproductive freedoms. This chapter draws on evidence from the Philippines to show how Filipino Catholic fundamentalist forces tied to a global Christian Right have been afforded windows of opportunity to promote a “pro-life” agenda and thereby restrict rights to bodily autonomy. It concludes with reflections on feminist strategies to overcome this imbrication of neoliberalism and religious fundamentalisms in an increasingly crisis-prone world.
High Wire
Authors: Zhang Angela Huyue
Published: April 2024

This book introduces a new analytical framework, the “dynamic pyramid model,” to analyze China’s unique regulatory model. The model comprises three critical features: hierarchy, volatility, and fragility—depicting the structure, process, and potential outcomes of China’s regulatory system, respectively. These three features, interconnected through intricate feedback loops, form an extensive network, effectively representing the regulatory dynamics in China. By employing China’s tech crackdown from 2020 to 2022 as a comprehensive case study, the book illuminates how the dynamic pyramid model has affected a broad spectrum of legal domains such as antitrust, data, and labor enforcement in China. It further delves into how platforms strategically self-regulate in the shadow of this regulatory system. Meanwhile, comparative exploration of the evolving regulatory landscapes in the United States and the European Union demonstrates that China grapples with many similar regulatory issues as its Western counterparts, while also shedding light on the future trajectory of China’s legal developments. Furthermore, the book finds that the tech crackdown has resulted in a significant shift in power dynamics between businesses and the Chinese state, leading to the retreat of the private sector and the emergence of the administrative state. The book concludes with some measured predictions of China’s future tech governance, focusing on its recent initiative to regulate the rapidly expanding field of generative artificial intelligence.
Ubiquitous Violence
Authors: Villarreal Ana
Published: April 2024

This chapter examines factors that converged when Mexican President Calderón took office and launched a “war on drug trafficking”: intensified binational drug-prohibition policies; shifts in Mexican state-criminal relations; the restructuring of the global cocaine market; the widespread availability of US-manufactured guns at the border; and more brutal groups of organized crime relying on terror to assert territory. As a violent turf war escalated across the Monterrey Metropolitan Area, kidnapping and extortion became widespread among wealthy and poor. Marginalized youth were the worst hit, both criminalized and forcibly recruited into organized crime. Such ubiquitous violence, paired with widespread impunity, prompted fear in all spheres of everyday life.
The Logistics of Fear
Authors: Villarreal Ana
Published: April 2024

This chapter provides examples of new logistics of fear developed amid rising violence, focusing on recalibrating and regrouping strategies. Reinforcing, relocating, and rescheduling practices are examined in later chapters. Crime stories circulating through social networks carried more weight than media reports, prompting locals to believe that they could “be next.” As kidnapping and extortion soared, wealthy and poor alike recommended others to lower their profile. Recalibrating included adopting discrete consumption practices like downgrading cars and clothing, as well as stripping themselves from professional identifiers. What constituted a low profile varied, but all social classes sought to become invisible. People regrouped through leaning into the safety of numbers in everyday transportation for work, school, and leisure. All tried to recalibrate and regroup, though not all could. Fear deepened the preexisting criminalization of young, poor, dark-skinned men.
Grey Zone Conflict and Military Affairs
Authors: Sisson Melanie W.
Published: April 2024

Since 2012, China, Russia, and others increasingly have undertaken creative diplomatic, legal, and military manoeuvres that challenge the standard operating assumptions and procedures of the United States and other liberal democracies. The result has been a rapid and thorough attachment to the notion of ‘grey zone conflict’. Too little attention, however, has been given to assessing whether the behaviours generally covered by the grey zone umbrella truly demand special treatment intellectually. It is far from clear that aggregating responses to the broad set of State behaviours and contexts within which they occur under a unifying grey zone strategy is useful conceptually or practically. This chapter therefore forwards the alternative: the null hypothesis that grey zone conflict is not new and does not require the development of novel military concepts, tactics, or strategies. It argues that the United States in particular already has at its disposal means of addressing these challenges.