bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of fruit dimorphism on genetic structure and gene flow in the coastal shrubScaevola taccada
Authors: Emura Naoko , Muranaka Tomoaki , Iwasaki Takaya , Honjo Mie N , Nagano Atsushi J , Isagi Yuji , Kudoh Hiroshi
Published: December 2022

Background and Aims

Plant propagules often possess specialized morphologies that facilitate dispersal across specific landscapes. In the fruit dimorphism of a coastal shrub, Scaevola taccada, individual plants produce either cork-morph or pulp-morph fruits. The former is buoyant and common on sandy beaches, whereas the latter does not float, is bird-dispersed, and is common on elevated sites such as slopes on sea cliffs and behind rocky shores. We hypothesized that beach populations bridge the heterogeneous landscapes by serving as a source of both fruit types, while dispersal is biased for the pulp morph on elevated sites within the islands and for the cork morph between beaches of different islands. Based on this hypothesis, we predicted that populations in elevated sites would diverge genetically over time due to isolation by distance, whereas beach populations would maintain high genetic similarity via current gene flow.

Methods

The genetic structure and gene flow in S. taccada were evaluated by investigating genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms in plants from 17 sampling sites on six islands (belonging to the Ryukyu, Daito and Ogasawara Islands) in Japan.

Key Results

Geographical isolation was detected among the three distant island groups. Analyses within the Ryukyu Islands suggested that sandy beach populations were characterized by genetic admixture, whereas populations in elevated sites were relatively isolated between the islands. Pairwise FST values between islands were lowest between sandy beaches, intermediate between sandy beaches and elevated sites, and highest between elevated sites.

Conclusions

Dispersal across the ocean by cork morphs is sufficiently frequent to prevent genetic divergence between beaches of different islands. Stronger genetic isolation of elevated sites between islands suggests that bird dispersal by pulp morphs is restricted mainly within islands. These contrasting patterns of gene flow realized by fruit dimorphism provide evidence that fruit characteristics can strongly mediate genetic structure.
Tree peony PsMYB44 negatively regulates petal blotch distribution by inhibiting dihydroflavonol-4-reductase gene expression
Authors: Luan Yuting , Chen Zijie , Tang Yuhan , Sun Jing , Meng Jiasong , Tao Jun , Zhao Daqiu
Published: December 2022

Background and Aims

The tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr.) has been widely cultivated as a field plant, and petal blotch is one of its important traits, which not only promotes proliferation but also confers high ornamental value. However, the regulatory network controlling blotch formation remains elusive owing to the functional differences and limited conservation of transcriptional regulators in dicots.

Methods

We performed phylogenetic analysis to identify MYB44-like transcription factors in P. suffruticosa blotched cultivar ‘High noon’ petals. A candidate MYB44-like transcription factor, PsMYB44, was analysed via expression pattern analysis, subcellular localization, target gene identification, gene silencing in P. suffruticosa petals and heterologous overexpression in tobacco.

Key Results

A blotch formation-related MYB44-like transcription factor, PsMYB44, was cloned. The C-terminal of the PsMYB44 amino acid sequence had a complete C2 motif that affects anthocyanin biosynthesis, and PsMYB44 was clustered in the MYB44-like transcriptional repressor branch. PsMYB44 was located in the nucleus, and its spatial and temporal expression patterns were negatively correlated with blotch formation. Furthermore, a yeast one-hybrid assay showed that PsMYB44 could target the promoter of the late anthocyanin biosynthesis-related dihydroflavonol-4-reductase (DFR) gene, and a dual-luciferase assay demonstrated that PsMYB44 could repress PsDFR promoter activity. On the one hand, overexpression of PsMYB44 significantly faded the red colour of tobacco flowers and decreased the anthocyanin content by 42.3 % by downregulating the expression level of the tobacco NtDFR gene. On the other hand, PsMYB44-silenced P. suffruticosa petals had a redder blotch colour, which was attributed to the fact that silencing PsMYB44 redirected metabolic flux to the anthocyanin biosynthesis branch, thereby promoting more anthocyanin accumulation in the petal base.

Conclusion

These results demonstrated that PsMYB44 negatively regulated the biosynthesis of anthocyanin by directly binding to the PsDFR promoter and subsequently inhibiting blotch formation, which helped to elucidate the molecular regulatory network of anthocyanin-mediated blotch formation in plants.
A Gadolinium-Based Magnetic Ionic Liquid for Dispersive Liquid–Liquid Microextraction of Ivermectin from Environmental Water
Authors: Abdelaziz Mohamed A , Saleh Ahmed M , Mansour Fotouh R , Danielson Neil D
Published: December 2022

The recently introduced gadolinium-based magnetic ionic liquid (Gd-MIL) has been exploited as an extractant in dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) for preconcentration of ivermectin (IVR) from water samples followed by analysis using reversed-phase HPLC with UV detection at 245 nm. The utilized Gd-MIL extractant is hydrophobic with markedly high magnetic susceptibility. These features result in an efficient extraction of the lipophilic analyte and facilitate the phase separation under the influence of a strong magnetic field, thus promoting the method sensitivity and increasing the potential for automation. To maximize the IVR enrichment by DLLME, the procedure was optimized for extractant mass, dispersive solvent type/volume, salt addition and diluent pH. At optimized conditions, an enrichment factor approaching 70 was obtained with 4.0-mL sample sizes. The method was validated in terms of accuracy, precision, specificity and limit of quantitation. The method was successfully applied to the determination of IVR in river water samples with a mean relative recovery of 97.3% at a spiked concentration of 400 ng/mL. Compared with other reported methods, this approach used a simpler procedure with improved precision, lower amounts of safer solvents and a short analysis time.
The rate of spontaneous mutations in yeast deficient for MutSβ function
Authors: Plavskin Yevgeniy , de Biase Maria Stella , Schwarz Roland F , Siegal Mark L
Published: December 2022

Mutations in simple sequence repeat loci underlie many inherited disorders in humans, and are increasingly recognized as important determinants of natural phenotypic variation. In eukaryotes, mutations in these sequences are primarily repaired by the MutSβ mismatch repair complex. To better understand the role of this complex in mismatch repair and the determinants of simple sequence repeat mutation predisposition, we performed mutation accumulation in yeast strains with abrogated MutSβ function. We demonstrate that mutations in simple sequence repeat loci in the absence of mismatch repair are primarily deletions. We also show that mutations accumulate at drastically different rates in short (<8 bp) and longer repeat loci. These data lend support to a model in which the mismatch repair complex is responsible for repair primarily in longer simple sequence repeats.
Molecular evolution of the ependymin-related gene epdl2 in African weakly electric fish
Authors: Losilla Mauricio , Gallant Jason R
Published: December 2022

Gene duplication and subsequent molecular evolution can give rise to taxon-specific gene specializations. In previous work, we found evidence that African weakly electric fish (Mormyridae) may have as many as three copies of the epdl2 gene, and the expression of two epdl2 genes is correlated with electric signal divergence. Epdl2 belongs to the ependymin-related family (EPDR), a functionally diverse family of secretory glycoproteins. In this study, we first describe vertebrate EPDR evolution and then present a detailed evolutionary history of epdl2 in Mormyridae with emphasis on the speciose genus Paramormyrops. Using Sanger sequencing, we confirm three apparently functional epdl2 genes in Paramormyrops kingsleyae. Next, we developed a nanopore-based amplicon sequencing strategy and bioinformatics pipeline to obtain and classify full-length epdl2 gene sequences (N = 34) across Mormyridae. Our phylogenetic analysis proposes three or four epdl2 paralogs dating from early Paramormyrops evolution. Finally, we conducted selection tests which detected positive selection around the duplication events and identified ten sites likely targeted by selection in the resulting paralogs. These sites’ locations in our modeled 3D protein structure involve four sites in ligand binding and six sites in homodimer formation. Together, these findings strongly imply an evolutionary mechanism whereby epdl2 genes underwent selection-driven functional specialization after tandem duplications in the rapidly speciating Paramormyrops. Considering previous evidence, we propose that epdl2 may contribute to electric signal diversification in mormyrids, an important aspect of species recognition during mating.
New Opportunities for Advancing Dyadic Health Science in Gerontology
Authors: Wilson Stephanie J , Novak Joshua R , Yorgason Jeremy B , Martire Lynn M , Lyons Karen S
Published: December 2022

As dyadic health science enters a golden age, important conceptual, theoretical, and technical challenges remain. This forum review brings together perspectives on the burgeoning dyadic literature from several subdisciplines within aging research. We first define key concepts and terms so that interested researchers can navigate the complex and various ways in which dyadic health research is conducted. We discuss exciting scientific advances and close by identifying crucial challenges and considerations that coincide with important future directions for the field.
A Winning Team of Losers: The Logic of Jihadist Coalitions in Civil Wars
Authors: Ahmad Aisha , Diallo Ousmane
Published: December 2022

For small groups fighting in multi-actor civil wars, joining a larger coalition is often a way to survive. Yet, it is not only rebel or pro-government non-state armed groups that form alliances; in many cases, jihadists have been surprisingly successful in building winning coalitions in civil wars. This is puzzling because jihadists attract fierce international opposition and are therefore very risky teams to join. Jihadists are also typically excluded from the political process, which means that they are unlikely to enjoy the spoils of a peace agreement. Why then would any local groups choose to join jihadist coalitions, rather than other rebel or pro-government coalitions in a conflict theatre? In this paper, we argue that ideology fails to explain this choice; rather, we contend that competition among rebel and pro-government coalitions inevitably produces winners and losers. Under these conditions, jihadists serve as an attractive spoiler coalition, drawing support from groups that see no chance of benefitting from an existing or future peace agreement. By offering these ‘losers’ a wider network and reference group, jihadists can expand their coalition base and territorial reach. By courting support from marginalized groups across ethnic and tribal lines, jihadists can create a winning coalition out of a diverse mix of losers.
Disability Rights and Citizenship
Authors: Gran Brian , Bryden Anne
Published: December 2022

Are citizenship and human rights effective tools to overcoming barriers and obstacles to societal membership for people with disabilities? This chapter investigates persistent barriers to social and political participation experienced by people with disabilities in spite of citizenship and human rights they possess. Through an appraisal of historical literature on citizenship and its conceptualization as a bundle of civil, political, and social rights that are interrelated and interdependent, this chapter examines citizenship as a foundation to the UN’s notion of human rights and its contemporary application to disability-rights issues. It examines whether and how rights have become important tools to producing social change for people with disabilities, as well as the problem of decoupling of disability rights, when a national government ratifies a human-rights treaty but fails to implement it at home. This chapter asks whether rights and their use by disability-rights movements foster citizenship and societal membership. It concludes with a discussion of new approaches to overcoming barriers that people with disabilities experience in participating in society.
Critical Hiphopography in Streetdance Communities (Hard Love Part 2)
Authors: Johnson Imani Kai
Published: December 2022

Based on in-depth interviews conducted with several women ethnographers of Hip Hop dances, this chapter explores experiences of critical hiphopography—a method that combines multiple grounded approaches through the social imperatives of Hip Hop culture and critical research strategies. The interview content touches on three themes: Hip Hop’s show and prove ethos, the complications of researching in community, and the impact of academic institutional power on research. The chapter emphasizes the challenges of doing hiphopography and explores how folks have attempted to work through them. It argues that critical hiphopography in practice provides research strategies that center community, are attentive to power, and disrupt academic conventions.
Asian American Liminality
Authors: jun grace shinhae
Published: December 2022

This chapter examines Asian American Hip Hop dance in the context of competitive and noncompetitive dance teams in Southern California. With the changing demographics in higher education, collegiate dance teams in Southern California have virtually become an Asian American youth social movement, with mass participation and numerous, large-scale competitions. This chapter argues that Asian Americans engaging in Hip Hop dance struggle with issues of visibility and invisibility, finding their identity, and engaging in cultural contestation, which opens up questions around Asian American appropriation of Hip Hop dance, and the possibilities of interracial solidarity.
Trade, Slavery, and Islam in the Cape Colony
Authors: Jappie Saarah
Published: December 2022

The formal integration of the Cape of Good Hope into Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC) trading networks in the seventeenth century led to profound change at the southern tip of Africa, across all domains. This chapter explores the literature on two major developments that resulted from VOC settlement at the Cape: the practice of slavery and the arrival of Islam. Paying attention to shifts in historiographical approaches and changes in the broader sociopolitical landscape, it demonstrates how these themes, once peripheral to South African historiography, attracted increased scholarly attention from the latter half of the twentieth century. In recent decades, both Islam and slavery have gained further visibility as researchers—Africanists and scholars of other regions alike—have sought to place South Africa in connected histories and transoceanic frameworks.
Africa and Trade and Investment Liberalization
Authors: Kugler Kholofelo , Getachew Adgeh Mulualem
Published: December 2022

African trade and investment relations have been shaped by external partners and institutions, as well as Africa’s own aspiration for European Union-style regional economic integration. The continent’s economic trajectory has been mainly underpinned by economic liberalization. However, African countries have generally conservatively followed mainstream trade models, rules, and institutions, while being more activist and innovative in investment rulemaking for sustainable development. Unlike investor disputes, African countries also have limited experience in international trade disputes within their regional economic communities and at the World Trade Organization. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement offers African countries an opportunity to forge an ambitious and robust continental economic regime and to facilitate African economies’ industrialization. While progress has been steady in recent years, the fate of Africa’s economic integration within the continent and into the global economy largely hinges on the successful implementation of this agreement.
Trade in Services
Authors: Ononaiwu Chantal
Published: December 2022

Since the conclusion of the GATS, there has been an explosion in the number of FTAs with commitments to liberalize trade in services. Generally, these agreements have developed frameworks that better reflect the role of services in world trade and the changing dynamics of services trade. This Chapter explores how FTAs have gone further than the GATS, both in terms of liberalization commitments and disciplines. It also highlights domestic initiatives that would support the further evolution of international regulation of services trade in line with the importance of services to domestic economies and the role of services in the global economy.
Development, Aid, and Preferential Systems
Authors: Remy Jan Yves , Nicholls Alicia
Published: December 2022

Today, the great debate about ‘development’ at the WTO is taking place against the wider backdrop of the global Sustainable Development Goals, providing yet another opportunity for the organization to confront its own relevance and effectiveness. This chapter examines how traditional rules and discussions on development are faring in the light of recent events at the WTO, including the submission of new proposals on ‘special and differential treatment’ by key WTO Members. We also discuss how the stalemate in the Doha Development Agenda is focussing more attention on development approaches in ‘WTO-plus’ FTAs. These FTAs provide useful templates for incorporating development issues at the multilateral level.
Progressive Trade
Authors: Gustafsson Marcus , Bahri Amrita
Published: December 2022

Labour and gender concerns share a blind spot in WTO law, which fails to adequately address them. However, that has not prevented WTO Members from increasingly addressing both labour and gender issues in their FTAs. Because trade ultimately affects and is affected by both labour and gender concerns, these concerns have found a place in existing bilateral and regional FTAs. Moreover, they are inseparable sides of the same coin, as labour provisions such as parental leave or childcare, occupational safety and health, and anti-discrimination directly impact female workers and entrepreneurs. However, there are various differences in the ways in which labour and gender provisions are drafted and incorporated in existing trade agreements. This chapter provides an overview of the growing influence of both labour standards and gender equality concerns in contemporary trade debates and, in particular, how existing FTAs have increasingly accommodated both concerns.
National security
Authors: Van Damme Isabelle
Published: December 2022

This chapter focuses on the relationship between trade and essential security interests. Until recently, the WTO legal community paid relatively little attention to security exception clauses in trade agreements. What has changed today is not the use of trade measures for protecting essential security. Rather, a change can be seen in the openness with which WTO Members are invoking Article XXI of the GATT 1994 and their acceptance of the risk that a third party may review their measures. What is also new is the assertion that essential security interests might also cover, for example, economic interests, public health risks or concerns relating to climate change or cybersecurity. This chapter focuses on Article XXI of the GATT 1994, and particularly the jurisdiction of panels and the applicable standard of review and the burden of proof in cases where that defence is invoked.
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)
Authors: Nam Juliana
Published: December 2022

This chapter outlines the developments in international disciplines concerning state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with a particular focus on the outcomes in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. Despite the uncertainty of the TPP’s future, its provisions live on in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). It provides a perspective on Chapter 17 of the TPP on ‘State-Owned Enterprises and Designated Monopolies’ in the context of negotiations among 12 disparate economies in the Indo-Pacific. It explains how that chapter ‘evolved’ existing international trade obligations and governance guidance on SOEs that compete with privately-owned enterprises.
Investment Law’s Monstrous Reform
Authors: Neufeld Rodney
Published: December 2022

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters in FTAs promote investment and enhance investor protection through substantive obligations, including national treatment, MFN treatment, fair and equitable treatment (FET), and the prohibition against expropriation. These obligations are often enforceable directly by investors through investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS). Despite the loud criticism of investment law, and more particularly, ISDS, States have not jettisoned the obligations or ISDS. As a review of State practice shows, new treaties contain important reform elements that clarify the meaning of vague concepts, including treatment ‘in like circumstances’, FET, and indirect expropriation. To a lesser extent, States are adopting reform elements that limit or even prevent access to ISDS. At the same time, States are eagerly pursuing procedural reform in ICSID and UNCITRAL. It remains to be seen whether these efforts will result in a new court or appellate mechanism, or whether they will contribute to the multilateralization of investment law, but even without it, the previously fragmented web of BITs are slowly being replaced by investment chapters in regional FTAs with much clearer obligations.
Financial Services Law
Authors: Lastra Rosa M. , Bodellini Marco
Published: December 2022

Financial services law can be understood as the normative framework that governs the financial sector. Based on the activities carried out, the financial sector, in turn, has been traditionally subdivided into three sub-sectors, namely banking, securities, and insurance. Thus, financial services law has accordingly been divided into banking law, securities (or capital markets) law and insurance law. In this chapter we discuss first the legal meaning of financial services law, financial services, financial products, financial intermediaries, and financial markets. We then analyse the rationale of regulation, focusing on financial stability, depositor and investor protection, market efficiency and transparency, prevention of financial crime and fraud as well as competition. The chapter also considers the internationalization of financial institutions and services and their liberalization and how the latter interacts with prudential supervision. In doing so, this chapter looks at GATS provisions and other trade agreements and concludes with a discussion of the law-making process at the international level, with particular attention to soft law.
Procedural and Evidentiary Issues
Authors: Sennekamp Andreas , Ortino Federico
Published: December 2022

The way in which procedural and evidentiary issues have been addressed in the litigation of international trade and investment disputes is not identical and each forum applies its proper set of rules and practices. At the same time, there are several common threads across different fora, for instance concerning the allocation of the burden and the standard of proof; the use of expert evidence; preliminary rulings; or the transparency and confidentiality of dispute settlement proceedings. Understood in a rather informal way, these elements may be seen as building blocks for the evolution of a ‘common law of international adjudication’. The following chapter identifies commonalities as well as differences in the approach to these issues in the jurisprudence of different fora.
The International Trading System—Looking to 2100
Authors: Bethlehem Daniel , McRae Donald
Published: December 2022

The Conclusion poses the question of whether the international trading system, as an integral part of the rules-based international legal order, is fit for purpose, to carry the global trading community towards 2100. Its conclusion is that the international trading system is still deeply rooted in Westphalian notions of international engagement, which are both increasingly out-of-step with contemporary international society and detached from some of the core principles that informed the emergence of the international trading system 75 or so years ago. There is a need for radical revision, structurally, as regards applicable rules, and as regards the international law-making process and sources of law, particularly in light of the challenges to the multilateral system likely to be posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Sources of International Trade Law
Authors: Kennedy Matthew
Published: December 2022

The multilateral rules of international trade law are administered by the WTO through a series of agreements containing both horizontally applicable rights and obligations as well as individually scheduled commitments. Although these rules are mostly set out in agreements concluded in 1994, they incorporate instruments from the prior GATT framework as well as rules developed in other international fora. They are supplemented by decisions taken after 1994, some of which are specifically provided for in the rules. The main source of clarification has been the rulings of the WTO dispute settlement system. Bilateral and regional rules have proliferated since the establishment of the WTO. They may exist within spaces created by exceptions in the multilateral rules but they are independent sources of law. Their subject matter overlaps considerably with multilateral rules. While they tend to diverge from multilateral rules in certain areas, such as market access, they do so less in other areas. Later generations of regional trade agreements often contain chapters covering topics on which there is no dedicated multilateral agreement. Preferential trade arrangements are authorized under exceptions in multilateral trade rules but they are established in the national laws of the preference-granting Members.
Invisible Women and Intangible Property
Authors: Bartow Ann C.
Published: December 2022

Recognizing the significant gender disparities promulgated by intellectual property laws requires a feminist gaze. Gender disparities in the intellectual property law areas of patents, copyrights, and trademarks negatively affect women’s economic and social status. Accurately mapping these disparities can be thwarted by bad data sets that amplify bias, suggesting that we need better, more inclusive data as well as feminist insights. This chapter focuses on the ways that gender and feminism intersect with intellectual property laws and policies, asserting two basic claims: first, that gender itself can be property, and is exploited as such in several intellectual property contexts, and second, that gender can affect the creation, distribution and consumption of works protected by intellectual property laws. The chapter then turns to issues of gender inequality in three major areas of intellectual property: patents, copyrights and trademarks. The final section discusses two legal areas adjacent to intellectual property: naming rights and artificial intelligence in the form of robots.
Fringe or Middle? Assessing Rock as Late Twentieth-Century Middlebrow
Authors: McDonald Chris
Published: December 2022

This chapter assesses the cases for and against rock as a late-twentieth-century middlebrow cultural form. Keightley and Michelsen make the case that rock played a role for middle-class and upwardly mobile working-class American youth that was similar to the middlebrow orchestral pop of their parents’ generation, but replaced the “middlebrow-from-above” paradigm that mediated high culture for society’s middle layers with a “middlebrow-from-below” approach that raised the intellectuality and respectability of lowbrow and folk forms. The chapter explores the merits of the argument and considers counterarguments that theorize rock as a cultural form valorizing a fringe (not middling) identity; it also notes that middlebrow culture’s mediation, aesthetics, and goals through the early and middle twentieth century contrast those of rock and make the middlebrow a theoretical frame for rock somewhat difficult to reconcile. Rock flourished during an era in American history when the sense of a “broad middle” in political and social terms was eroding and fragmenting. As an artifact, rock played a cultural role in American society’s transformation from the “expanding middle” of the postwar era to the “fringes against the middle” ethos that marked the neoliberal era.
Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders
Authors: Lee Eric B. , Arendtson Myles , Wall Andy
Published: December 2022

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders share many functional components and are often comorbid with one another. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for OCD and related disorders is described and is situated as a version of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Also described are the key psychological inflexibility measures for each of these disorders and the outcomes work with OCD and related disorders. Research supports ACT and ACT plus exposure therapy for OCD, and ACT plus habit reversal as a treatment for trichotillomania. The work in skin picking, hoarding disorder, and BDD is limited but is growing. Finally, guidance on the integration of ACT with exposure exercises and habit reversal, as well as future directions for work in this area, are presented.
Spirituality, Mission, and Liturgy
Authors: Chia Edmund Kee-Fook
Published: December 2022

It would not be possible to understand Christianity without an appreciation of its spirituality, mission, and liturgy. These three themes are integral to Christianity, and the Christian faith that is expressed is a function of how they are understood. This chapter examines the variety of Christian expressions, taking the principle of sacramentality as the lens through which spirituality, mission, and liturgy are appreciated. It focuses on interrogating spirituality from a creation-centred perspective, mission from the perspective of missio Dei, and liturgy with reference to the liturgy of life. Throughout the chapter, the three themes of spirituality, mission, and liturgy will mutually inform one another and give meaning to how they are articulated from the sacramental perspective.
Christian Mission and International Development
Authors: Drønen Tomas Sundnes
Published: December 2022

This chapter will start by introducing briefly the discussion between mission as evangelizing activities and mission as diaconal activities. It will then show through examples, mainly from Central and Eastern/Southern Africa (Cameroon and Madagascar), how mission organizations and local churches (independently and in companionship) have dealt with the tensions between evangelism and development activities. Of importance will be how and to what extent churches have been influenced by the emerging and professionalized “development industry,” and how this has influenced the theological discourse related to the diaconal work of the mission organizations and the independent churches. Particular attention will be directed towards the fight against poverty through educational and health-oriented activities in a historical perspective, drawing attention to the development of UN’s development goals and African churches’ engagement with these goals.
Christian Mission and Social Action
Authors: Kung Lap Yan
Published: December 2022

Christian mission is social action rooted in God’s creation and salvation with an intention to bring the whole creation to share God’s company and glory. Different from relief and development work, the church engages in advocacy to confront the power of sin directly. Christian social action should be done in a spirit of prophetic dialogue, not empire mentality. Two issues for Christian social action are highlighted, namely, religious liberty in China, and civil rights in Malaysia. Christians in China are politically weak to confront the government for defending their liberty but they witness to how enabling human flourishing begins with defending human dignity expressed in religious liberty. Civil rights are restricted in different ways in Malaysia. Christians engaged in Bersih in recent years is an example of Christian mission, because the activity protects the call of people being God’s co-workers.
Christian Mission and Secularism
Authors: Jansen Mechteld
Published: December 2022

This chapter elucidates the prospects and pitfalls for Christian witness and public engagement provoking as well as confronting multiple secularisms. It disputes the claim of secularism to be a progressive, urban, gender-equal, non-colonial principle of statecraft and personal conviction. It questions mission theories that either neglect or deny contemporary secularism by overemphasizing the persistence of Christianity in ethics and new spirituality, or by a retreat into fundamentalism. The chapter scrutinizes the thesis that mission and secularism can become mutual exorcists, liberating each other from various evils. The endeavor to understand—and not merely denounce—different secularisms, is imperative for any contextualized Christian mission. Witness and public engagement may seek varying encounters with secularism, striving to overcome demeaning attitudes and prejudice on both sides. Communication by faith communities and mass media on the science–religion dichotomy, on religion–state relations, and on both colonial mission as well as colonial secularism, is crucial.
Christian Mission and Religious Studies
Authors: Longkumer Atola
Published: December 2022

Christian mission and religious studies share an ambiguous relationship. Simultaneously, polemical discourse and constructive production have characterized the encounter between Christian mission and religious studies. Two major strands undergird the debate. On one hand, scholarship remains critical of Christian mission as “conquering” other world religions. On the other hand, another perspective recognizes the role of Christian mission in establishing the systematic study of world religions including the translation of sacred texts, production of ethnography, and establishment of the first academic chairs dedicated to the study of other world religions. Within this general scaffolding, the essay demonstrates that both dimensions exist in the study of Indigenous religions. Profiles of missionary-academics and their writings illustrate the role of Christian mission in the recognition and critical study of Indigenous religions.
Theologies of Mission
Authors: Bevans Stephen
Published: December 2022

After surveying four theologies of mission articulated in the twentieth century, this chapter suggests that three theologies of mission, rooted in the missiological and theological breakthroughs of the previous century, have emerged in the twenty-first century and will set the agenda for decades to come. These theologies are (1) Mission as Prophetic Dialogue, (2) Mission as Transforming/Missionary Discipleship, and (3) Mission as Attraction. The author sees these three theologies of mission as taking mission on a new path, shaping the spirit and practice of mission for the future, and enabling the church to commit itself first and foremost to be a credible witness in the world.
Mission and Ecclesiology
Authors: Petraru Gheorghe
Published: December 2022

In the twentieth century, Orthodox theologians made a significant impact on Western theology, and on missiology in particular, but it was selectively appropriated. This chapter gives an in-depth and contemporary account of Orthodox thinking on the relationship between the church and mission. Such a presentation requires, first, consideration of the nature of Orthodox ecclesiology; second, appreciation of mission in the New Testament; and third, examination of Patristic ecclesiology. Written from a Romanian Orthodox perspective, the chapter also applies these insights to some current missiological issues facing the church, particularly in the global and post-communist context.
Big Data and State Capitalism
Authors: Misra Anupriya , Sena Vania
Published: December 2022

This chapter has explored the relationship between big data and state capitalism. Our starting premise is that big data offer several opportunities. Like any other organization, SOEs produce large volumes of data while undertaking their routine activities. As a result, they end up storing data of different type and complexity that can be used to improve our understanding of the drivers of their performance and by governments and practitioners to improve the SOEs performance. The chapter has analyzed the benefits that big data can offer to limit the liability of stateness and the challenges they can pose.
State Capitalism
Authors: Boyer Robert
Published: December 2022

States and capitalisms have coevolved and formed contrasted configurations from feudalism to contemporary configurations. Under the same label of state capitalism, economic history exhibits some definite mixes of various components: economic nationalism, public ownership of firms and banks, planning or large public spending, and income redistribution. The French state capitalism variant is one of these configurations. The coordination among public entities from industry to finance, an indicative planning as an anti-uncertainty device and complementary economic policy instruments used to define a rather coherent and dynamic regime. The large opening to European and world competition and the financial deregulation have progressively eroded the performance of this successful modernization. The early twenty-first century evolution raises an intriguing issue: are not the nation-states and the transnational platform capitalism trading place? Governments react to price signals whereas GAFAM exert the strategic leadership in the redeployment of contemporary capitalism. Will the COVID-19 mean a reversal and the revival of various brands of state capitalism?
State Capitalism and Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: Brejnholt Alan , Rintamäki Jukka , Schnyder Gerhard , Svystunova Liudmyla
Published: December 2022

Typically, the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and state action is considered to be one of complementing or substitution. However, growing numbers of governments consider CSR as a potential policy tool and attempt to actively shape organizational CSR policies and outcomes. Yet, different types of states exhibit different levels of interventionism and different preferences regarding the means and ends of state intervention in the economy. This suggests that CSR policies and outcomes vary across different types of states. The extant literature has given scant attention to this. In this chapter we seek to remedy this shortcoming. We systematically explore the relationship between varieties of states and corporate social responsibility, by constructing a typology of corporate responsibilities indifferent types of states. We combine existing typologies of states and of government-CSR configurations, to answer the question how different types of state lead to different firm-level CSR practices and overall outcomes. We find that a regulatory state seeks a minimum role in facilitating CSR, largely leaving CSR to the market for self-regulation. A welfare state takes an active role shaping CSR practice through direct affiliations in cross-sector collaboration and mandatory CSR policy. A developmental state also has a direct involvement in CSR practice through frequent partnerships involving social projects or CSR facilitated through subsidies as well as CSR as a form of government. Lastly, we theories that predatory states have little interest in CSR, and when they do it is mostly in an opportunistic fashion with limited social and environmental outcomes.
State Capitalism in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: van der Walt Lucien , Klerck Gilton , Helliker Kirk
Published: December 2022

Historical and contemporary analyses of state capitalism have largely by-passed Sub-Saharan Africa in that state capitalism, as a conceptual framework, has generally been absent from analyses of the region, and experiences in the region have generally been absent in discussions of, and theory-building about, state capitalism. This chapter helps redress the situation, by examining African cases, with a focus on the period from the late nineteenth century to the present, covering the modern European colonial, early post-independence, and contemporary, neoliberal periods. An examination of African experiences suggests the need to rethink standard typologies of state capitalism, to embrace, inter alia, colonial capitalism—including étatiste-peasant regimes, and regimes of competitive exploitation—and militarized forms of state capitalism—such as those seen under colonial charter companies, and more recently, under predatory independent states. African experiences underline that there is no simple sequence of types, as some older forms recur later, and there are overlaps and coexistences of types. Finally, attention to African variants of some better-known types—for example, racialized forms of import-substitution industrialization under apartheid—enrich existing typologies. It is important, therefore, to take account of the great variation in African state forms, capacities, class structures, and political economies when considering regional patterns and making international comparisons.
State Capitalism in the United States
Authors: Hockett Robert C. , Omarova Saule T.
Published: December 2022

In this chapter, we outline what we call “The American Plan” of state capitalism, developed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in the early years of the American republic, and trace its defining elements through two centuries down to the present. In the modern era, these elements jointly define what we call a “Development Finance State,” an American tradition of hybrid public-private financing of continuous economic progress. We identify the key attributes and functions of the Development Finance State and discuss both their continuing relevance and their untapped potential. We argue that rediscovery and rebirth of this forgotten but powerful American tradition is the key to the country’s ability meet the many challenges it faces today.
State Capitalism in India
Authors: Chandra Rohit , Chatterjee Elizabeth
Published: December 2022

Despite three decades of gradual liberalization, state intervention in the Indian economy remains extensive but substantively different from the old central planning. The state has moved away from the direct ownership model in many industrial sectors. Nonetheless, large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) still dominate key sectors such as energy and infrastructure, and the state continues to intervene heavily in many other sectors using its control of credit, land, and natural resources. This chapter surveys these changes, examining the reinvention of SOEs in the liberalization era. It uses firm-level case studies from the electricity, coal, and aviation sectors to explain variation in SOE performance, showing this to be inextricable from the political economies in which individual firms are embedded. SOEs have thrived when entrepreneurial bureaucrats have been able to leverage their firms’ political influence and access to lucrative resources. They have fared much less well when managers lacked the resources to resist political pressures or the entry of privately owned rivals. Finally, the chapter assesses new tools of state intervention, especially the channeling of state resources to favored private firms and the slow-burning economic crisis this has precipitated since 2012. Overall, the political and economic coherence of Indian state capitalism as a system should not be overstated, illustrating the difficulties of governing state capitalism in a fractious federal democracy.
What’s Wrong with Trolling?
Authors: Roache Rebecca
Published: December 2022

It is clear what is wrong with online trolling when it involves behavior—such as harassment, bullying, and libel—against which there are already established norms in the offline world. It is less clear what is wrong with trolling when it involves behavior that we do not usually encounter offline. Examples of such behaviour—which I call low-key trolling—include joining and disrupting other people’s conversations, name-calling, and deliberately annoying others. Drawing on Joel Feinberg’s work on offence, and on the literature on silencing and epistemic injustice, I sketch an ethical framework according to which we can evaluate and critique low-key trolling. I argue that low-key trolling is wrong because of its effects on the people trolled; effects which are disproportionately felt by people from vulnerable and oppressed groups.
Commonplacing, Making Miscellanies, and Interpreting Literature
Authors: Burke Victoria E.
Published: December 2022

This chapter discusses women’s participation in commonplace book culture and miscellany making, arguing that women’s manuscript compilations can offer unique insights into how early modern women responded to and created discourse. After defining commonplace books and miscellanies, the chapter describes recent research into female readers of John Donne’s poetry. Compilers show evidence of interpreting poetry as they copied it, whether in their choice and ordering of poems and extracts, or in aesthetic ‘improvements’ to them, which raises the issue of early modern women’s interpretation of the writing they read, and scholars’ interpretation of these choices. Scholars can wish to see creative engagement in the compilers they study, but sometimes neither the reasons for particular decisions, nor the gender of a compiler, can be established. Many women in the period did find that this mode of responding to literature and religious texts made a space where constraint could turn into creation.
The World of Recipes: Intellectual Culture in and around the Seventeenth-Century Household
Authors: Wall Wendy
Published: December 2022

How was the early modern English household a space of intellectual ferment and exchange? This chapter focuses on how one specific archive of domestic writing—manuscript and printed recipes—enables scholars to refine our understanding of knowledge production in seventeenth-century England. The chapter discusses the competing modes in which printed recipes in the long seventeenth-century appeared. Analysing manuscript recipes involving women across the social spectrum, we see how the making of the recipe collection was also a significant textual, material, and intellectual activity. Recipes prove important for early modern scholars as we refine previous claims about domesticity’s ideological function. This chapter explores how household practice and its textual record offered women opportunities for the negotiation of national and class identities. Imitating courtly food rituals might express social aspirations or consolidate fragile elite status. Recipe writing thus reveals unacknowledged ways that women across the social spectrum investigated and shaped their material worlds.