bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Elements of a Theory of Global Governance
Authors: Held David
Published: February 2024

After the devastation of World War II, a new international community was built, organized under the newly formed United Nations which oversaw the development of a new legal and institutional framework for the maintenance of peace and security. Maintaining global peace and stability served the purpose of limiting violence, but it was also a prerequisite for accelerating “globalisation”. Even during the years of the Cold War, deep tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union facilitated, paradoxically, a deepening of interdependence and coordination among world powers. The logic of MAD (“mutually assured destruction”) determined the awareness of the shared vulnerability of the globe. From the late 1940s to the beginning of the 21st century, a densely complex and interdependent world order emerged. Global interdependence has now progressed to the point where it is beginning to undermine our ability to engage in further cooperation. The need for international cooperation has never been higher and yet effective institutionalized multilateral cooperation has stalled. It is possible to identify four reasons for this blockage, four pathways to gridlock: rising multipolarity, more difficult problems, institutional inertia and institutional fragmentation. Still, there exists a range of instances in which gridlock has not prevented effective global governance from emerging – some “pathways” out of gridlock. The following article discusses the reasons behind gridlock and the four pathways through and beyond it, in order to identify mechanisms through which effective global change can occur. This task, the search for pathways through and beyond gridlock, is a hugely significant one, if global governance is to be once again effective, responsive and fit for purpose.
Whiteness as an Act of Belonging: White Turks Phenomenon in the post 9/11 World
Authors: Yorukoglu Ilgin
Published: February 2024

Turks, along with other people of the Middle East, retain a claim to being “Caucasian”. Technically white, Turks do not fit neatly into Western racial categories especially after 9/11, and with the increasing normalization of racist discourses in Western politics, their assumed religious and geographical identities categorise “secular” Turks along with their Muslim “others” and, crucially, suggest a “non-white” status. In this context, for Turks who explicitly refuse to be presented along with “Islamists”, “whiteness” becomes an act of belonging to “the West” (instead of the East, to “the civilised world” instead of the world of terrorism). The White Turks phenomenon does not only reveal the fluidity of racial categories, it also helps question the meaning of resistance and racial identification “from below”. In dealing with their insecurities with their place in the world, White Turks fall short of leading towards a radical democratic politics.
Le Nuove Identità Culturali Glocali: dagli Italiani agli Italici
Authors: Giumelli Riccardo
Published: February 2024

Globalisation is constantly redefining the processes of individual and collective identity construction. We are experiencing a profound change of era. As many important sociologists have said, we are facing a change of our identity and our social relations in everyday life. Time and space are changing, proximity is our local dimension, but we are immersed in the global flows. Processes of deterritorialization and virtualisation are widespread and characteristic of this new era, profoundly different from the modern era, where territory was so strongly linked to sovereignty and citizenship. Nowadays the crisis of the idea of the modern nation state is reflected by the difficulty in keeping the same meanings to the same expressions. This creates consequences for the Italian community in the world and their changes – the fundamental theme of our research – which take on new identities and functions. In particular we face the new idea of a glocal and cultural identity called Italicity, a sort of Italic commonwealth.
The Art of Memory: “Social Bookmarking Hamburg”
Authors: Stiassny Noga , Tong Xin
Published: February 2024

At the end of November 2016, a unique and intruding art project took place in the city of Hamburg, Germany, a result of collaboration between German artists and a Chinese artist, who all seek to commemorate the Chinese victims who lived in the city pre- World War II but had to suffer the injustices of the Nazi regime. The project lasted three days and was presented in various locations throughout the city, while including many artistic mediums alongside scholarly work. By referring to the main events of that weekend, the paper traces after a “forgotten” past that many people refuse to look at, not to say to take responsibility for it, while in contrast, the art continues to extract it from the depths of oblivion and forced amnesia – to the dismay of many.
Seeing Like a Tesla: How Can We Anticipate Self-Driving Worlds?
Authors: Stilgoe Jack
Published: February 2024

In the last five years, investment and innovation in self-driving cars has accelerated dramatically. Automotive autonomy, once seen as impossible, is now sold as inevitable. Much of the governance discussion has centred on risk: will the cars be safer than their human-controlled counterparts? As with conventional cars, harder long-term questions relate to the future worlds that self-driving technologies might enable or even demand. The vision of an autonomous vehicle – able to navigate the world’s complexity using only its sensors and processors – on offer from companies like Tesla is intentionally misleading. So-called “autonomous” vehicles will depend upon webs of social and technical connectivity. For their purported benefits to be realised, infrastructures that were designed around humans will need to be upgraded in order to become machine-readable. It is vital to anticipate the politics of self-driving worlds in order to avoid exacerbating the inequalities that have emerged around conventional cars. Rather than being dazzled by the Tesla view, policymakers should start seeing like a city, from multiple perspectives. Good governance for self-driving cars means democratising experimentation and creating genuine collaboration between companies and local governments.
Do Digital Social Networks Foster Civilian Participation among Millennials? Kitchenware Revolution and 15M Democratic Regeneration Cases
Authors: Calzada Igor
Published: February 2024

Nowadays “education for citizenship” is presented as a solution for many of the political, social, and co-existential issues in Western democratic societies in order to tackle dysfunctionalities produced by globalization, populism, migration, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and violence. At the same time, particularly among “millennials” or “digital natives”, lack of civil commitment and apathy toward politics as a whole contrasts with their intensive usage of digital social networks, or social media. By examining in-depth the scientific literature about the potential conceptual correlations between the use of “digital social networks” and civilian participation among “millennials”, this paper explores two widely studied paradigmatic events of democratic regeneration: the “Kitchenware Revolution” in Iceland after the financial collapse on 6 October 2008, and the “15M Movement” in Spain after 15 May 2011. Despite the substantial relevance that digital social networks played in both cases, this paper wonders to what extent digital social networks foster millennials’ civilian participation, when, paradoxically, they seem to be the population target who contests the status quo but who is not actually being represented democratically in the formal political system. The author concludes that digital social networks could initially foster civilian participation, but they should be seen as a new artefact that, itself, does not necessarily lead to a better political representation of millennials. As well, this paper argues against the widespread assumption regarding the correlation between socioeconomic and educational status and Internet usage factors of millennials when it comes to civilian participation, particularly in extreme political mobilisation events such as the Kitchenware Revolution and 15M.
Lenguas en uso y procesos de identificación el caso de los descendientes de personas filipinas de Mesina
Authors: Cama Maria
Published: February 2024

The main purpose of this work is to understand how young people of immigrant origin use different languages for communication in the reception community. These pages consider the linguistic habits of Philippine immigrant people’s descendants, living in Messina, who despite the fact they were born here or even though they have lived here most of their life, they still have the status of “foreigners”. Considering both some data submitted by national reports, – which reveal a considerable increase in the number of immigrant people’s sons and daughters in Italy –, we carry out a short analysis of the main characteristics of these minors frommigratorybackground. With reference to previous research activities, which examine important issues about the use of languages and sense of belonging to a certain community, we consider to stress the way in which the same young people from the Philippines communicate. Our aim is to know what languages do most of them speak, when, why and with whom and, above all, the explications which the same actors are able to give about their own actions.The main purpose is to study sociolinguistic integration trying to understand for which reasons the spoken languages are considered to be linked with the idea that one person can have regarding him/herself and about “the others” and if the dominance of a language can indeed affect people’s sense of identity.
Globalization and Postnational Model of Citizenship
Authors: Ivic Sanja
Published: February 2024

This paper investigates the postnational model of citizenship and contemporary challenges to postnational citizenship in the era of globalization whose nature is ambivalent and also includes fragmentation. Although the postnational concept of citizenship is based on the recognition of multiple identities, it does not necessarily represent the postmodern definition of citizenship, because, if this were the case, it would have to be based on the postmodern idea of decentred subjects, or fluid self. Unlike the postmodern citizenship, it is possible to imagine postnational citizenship that includes different identities, but perceives each of them as homogeneous. Economic and political dimensions of globalization and Europeanization coexist with resurgence of nationalism. The perception of paradox of nationalism in global era is further intensified by its European context as it was expected that the European Union overcomes nationalist discourses.
Contemporary Populisms
Authors: Bilgrami Akeel
Published: February 2024

The rise of right-wing populism in recent years can be interpreted as a direct consequence of the crisis in the relationship between traditional parties and the civilian population. A careful reflection on this phenomenon, though, requires a more extensive and ramified explanation of its material and ideological causes. A significant role has also been played by the inability of the media and institutions to understand the needs of less well-to-do classes, driven, as they are, to search for alternatives in right-wing populism. This is accompanied by the structural crisis within the traditional left-wing political parties and their movements. They were unable to respond in a credible way to the devastating socio-economic effects of the 2008 global crisis and are now unable to restore a balance between welfare and development at a time when financial capital is volatile. These considerations are then augmented by a series of comparisons between the many forms that populism has taken both in the western world and beyond, in particular comparisons between protectionist populism in the United States, nationalism in Turkey and Hindu extremism in India. Taking these differences into account, today’s populism seems to have originated in the cyclical worsening of popular resentment and in the weakening of social democratic bonds between social classes. These tensions can only be countered by politics that are more human and attentive to the actual needs of the civilian population.
La via locale alla cittadinanza globale una sfida epistemologica e politica
Authors: Lazzarini Anna
Published: February 2024

Rethinking the concept of citizenship means understanding the historical nature of the relationship between citizenship and nation-state and going beyond the definition of a formal and legal status, such as the membership to a political system. In the global era, citizenship undergoes a process of deterritorialization that produces a fragmentation and multiplication of forms, figures and experiences. The text aims at illustrating that citizenship is a field of tensions: it is crossed by the struggles, specially concerning the violation of its borders, of individuals who are excluded or includedin a differentiated or subordinate way. These “acts of citizenship” are acts through which individuals become, make themselves citizens. At the same time, interpreting citizenship not only as a formal status, but as a space of conflict and movement, based on the extension of rights, does not mean denying its normative dimension: citizenship emerges between normative and processual dimension. Citizenship is a project in continuous construction and reconstruction, producing the possibility of access to rights. When considered as a process of political subjectivation, citizenship is a dynamic, ever-changing institution. Today, in particular, cities are the crucial space of new emerging forms of citizenship.
Globalization and Federation in Peril Renewed Agitations for Statehood and the Future of Nigerian State
Authors: Maigari A. M. , Dantani U.
Published: February 2024

The paper examines how globalization induces tensions and prejudices in the federal state of Nigeria, which lead to separatist and secessionist movements. The methodological issues are based on documentary and content analyses and adopt a sociological approach as the framework of analysis. The approach argues that a federal structure permeated by forces of globalization, primordial sentiments and pretensions, agitations for self-determination are presented as separatist or secessionist movements. Research finding argues that the onset of globalization in Third World nations was perpetuated through colonial domination which created a divide and rule policy in the federal state of Nigeria. The policy of domination and marginalization by European colonialist and continued by the first republic politicians and military dictators have triggered agitations and counter agitations for secessionism in Nigeria. It is also argued from the research finding that deregulation of the downstream sector of the Nigerian oil industries in the Niger Delta region, one of the forces of globalization creates and intensifies unemployment, brings abject poverty and hunger, looses soil fertility, creates environmental pollution and degradation, destroys aquatic animals and prevalence of oil spillage. The outcome was the intensification of militancy operations in the region-fuelled secessionist movement by the inhabitants of oil producing communities. Furthermore, it is indicated by the finding of the research that trade liberalization – a rule of the game of globalization – allows the intrusion of small arms and light weapons into Nigeria by the secessionist movements and Boko Haram insurgents who want to establish an Islamic state based on theocracy. Possession of logistics and their applications for secessionism, therefore, pose a serious challenge to the corporate existence federalism in Nigeria. Moreover, the contagious theory effect of globalized media that provides chances of spreading the philosophy and successes of other secessionist movements elsewhere into the federal structure of the country has aided the process of agitations for separatism. The paper concludes that despite the demands for secessionism, the process left much to be desired as the Nigerian state continues to exist under a unified and indivisible country.
Porous Territories the Internet beyond Borderless versus Balkanized
Authors: Munn Luke
Published: February 2024

If the internet was once viewed as a borderless realm, critics now warn it is in danger of being “balkanized”, splintering into nationalized fragments. Certainly nation-states increasingly see the Internet as “their” internet, a national space to be regulated and actively shaped. The first half of this article charts the technologies that appear to place this vision within reach: data localization, internet shutdowns, and internet filtering. These moves promise to exert sovereign control, to make the internet an extension of national territory. Yet by drawing on two recent events in China, this article argues that these territories are messy and their borders are permeable. Pro-government activists jump across the firewall in order to attack individuals and organizations who threaten the stability and security of their motherland. Simultaneously, individuals scale the firewall in order to question the party line and express solidarity with democratic movements, undermining the political and technical boundaries established by their nation. Internet architectures create a condition where territorialization is constantly being both amplified and undermined by “extra- territorial” activities. These practices demonstrate the everyday porosity of internet territories, providing a messier portrait that goes beyond the dichotomy of borderless vs balkanized.
Globalization and International Development Finance a Troubled Path
Authors: Barbieri Giovanni
Published: February 2024

Since the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutional framework in 1944, the World Bank played the lion’s share in development finance globally. Although World Bank initially operated in terms of inter-governmental cooperation in the field of international economic aid, it soon developed the development finance approach that led to the flourishing of Multilateral Development Banks in the 50s. During the 60s and the 70s development finance became increasingly tied to market-based consideration and started to phase out from the governmental sphere, bringing in private actors. The 80s marked the final stage of this evolution, through the role played by the so-called Washington Consensus and the idea that the State should roll-back from development finance as well as from many other aspects of economics. This contribution tries to depict the evolutionary path of development finance and MDBs’ from its original government-oriented activity to a market-driven activity, a dynamic roughly following the evolutionary path of globalization according to the Washington Consensus principles. In the final section the case of Chinese development finance is addressed, trying to assess to what extent a reversal process is at work in partially bringing back development finance activities within the governmental sphere.
“The Humble Cosmopolitan Rights, Diversity, and Trans-State Democracy” by Luis Cabrera
Authors: Mukherjee Krishnamurari
Published: February 2024

It is often alleged that debates on cosmopolitanism and global justice are blind towards non-western normative resources. In The Humble Cosmopolitan: Rights, Diversity, and Trans-state Democracy, published by the Oxford University Press in 2020, Luis Cabrera responds to such a charge by presenting an account of institutional cosmopolitanism imbued with the norm of political humility. By interpreting Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s political vision and the practices inspired by it, Cabrera articulates a theory of institutional cosmopolitanism that not only has an egalitarian slant, but more importantly is imbued with the ideal of political humility.
Iran and the Dispute Resolution Mechanism: Diplomacy or Revisionism?
Authors: Das Debasish
Published: February 2024

The assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani by the US, followed by the downing of the Ukrainian passenger jet by the Iranian forces have raised several questions on the credibility of Iranian claims over its nuclear program once again. Amid the provocation, the declaration of suspension of all limits to uranium enrichment under the 2015 nuclear deal has been the major bargaining point for Iran to retain its position. In response, the E3 (France, Germany and the UK) has triggered the Dispute Resolution Mechanism under paragraph 36 of the 2015 nuclear deal. The mechanism offers a 60-day window to Iran to seek a mutually beneficial resolution aiming to resume its conformation to the deal. Failure to secure the resolution shall resume UNSC sanctions. This article deals with the strategy of coercive diplomacy between the West and Iran through the recent episodes of violent exchanges as well as diplomatic discourses along the lines of their historical relevance. It argues that the West has shifted its focus from clear coercive diplomacy to coercive revisionism, which entails a consistent effort to defy mutuality of the outcome. Perhaps, it seeks an arbitrary outcome in favor of the West. It attempts to address the plausibility of the Dispute Resolution Mechanism.
The Competing Politics of Austrian Glocalization Covid-19, Crime and (Anti-)Racism
Authors: Karner Christian
Published: February 2024

Based on a carefully contextualised discussion of discursive and semiotic contributions to public debate in Austria during the politically charged summer of 2020, this article captures ideologically different, at times mutually opposed glocalizing strategies. The social sites and entanglement of “the global” and “the local” examined are the following: a parliamentary address in which neo-nationalist rhetoric is framed by global points of reference; local appropriations of the Black Lives Matter movement for the purposes of symbolic protest against public monuments commemorating problematic regional histories; and recent public debates in Austria that illustrate the glocalization of everyday politics. In each example, global contexts provide crucial momentum for the articulation of local concerns and mobilisations. The ensuing analysis helps illuminate some of the distinctly transnational, enabling conditions for ideological contest in Austria today. In methodological terms, the discussion demonstrates that an understanding of locally specific appropriations of a diversity of global flows demands ethnographic sensitivity, historical contextualisation, and local knowledge.
Too Centralized to Fail A Bitcoin Network Analysis
Authors: Corradi Fiammetta , Pagliaro Lorenzo
Published: February 2024

As the title provocatively suggests, in this article we explore empirically and question on the basis of research outcomes the implications of one of the most distinctive features of Bitcoin as a digital currency: the positively advertised de-centralization of its network and the often derived claim of egalitarianism alleged to the peer-to-peer system. In order to assess degrees and trends of network de-centralization we follow two tracks. First, we analyze a snapshot of BTC transactions taken in October 2020, basing our explorations on a subset of the “crypto_bitcoin” dataset publicly available on Google Cloud Platform and applying some of the more relevant network analysis tools, like degrees and prestige. Then we extend the analysis to the overall Bitcoin system, tracing the structural transformations it has witnessed over time with regard to the hash-rate distribution. Through a longitudinal comparison, we come to show that the number of competitors in the network have decreased over time, reducing the initial outright pluralism of the actors in the system, and gradually melting down into “special nodes”, whose power has grown over time. Such centralization trends, together with the China-centered geographical distribution of the major mining pools, might have had important implications for Bitcoin success as well as they might for its future.
New Glocal Forms of Financial Participation and Revenue Mobilization
Authors: GARBARINO CARLO
Published: February 2024

The state-centric international tax system is currently under the threat of a type of “race” for the lowest tax rates. In this case, the “race” consists of a global fiscal trilemma where democracy, states and globalization cannot coexist. This is truly an impasse which requires a broader perspective through the development of glocal polities defined as any group of people who have a collective identity and who are organized by some form of instituzionalized social realations. In addition, this group has developed a specific capacity to mobilize resources combining global and local dimensions. The scope of glocal polities is mainly outside and beyond ordinary economic activities carried out under the state actors’ rules of fiscal and monetary sovereignty and the ability of glocal polities to mobilize non-monetary resources, in opposition to states whose monetary revenues work through the monopoly of force. The financial structure of glocal polities relies on networks of non-state actors possessing a polycentric architecture through which resources are mobilized, enabling glocal polities to develop and promote political goals while also becoming a potential avenue for the development of a commonwealth of civilizations and cultures.
Experimentando Materia Tintóreas Entre el Nuevo Mundo y Europa Narrativas y Muestras en los Archivos de la Monarquía Hispanica (Siglo XVI)
Authors: Cunill Caroline , Torres Efrén
Published: February 2024

This article analyzes the emergence of applied sciences in the field of two American dyeing materials – the woad called ek and the indigo – in the Spanish Empire. It highlights how the circulation of written documents and displays of materials situated local knowledge and experiences in a global framework in which a wide range of actors was engaged from Mexico City, Campeche, Mérida (Yucatan), Seville, Madrid or Milan. We will also show that the Spaniards tended to obscure the Native origin of their so-called “inventions” in order to secure privileges in the production and commercialization of these materials. On the other hand, we examine the Council of the Indies efforts to stimulate the production of knowledge, to organize and intertwine information, and to promote the imperial economic interests. The article thus demonstrates how the analysis of the Spanish Monarchy’s archivistic practices is key to fully understanding the emergence of the Renaissance scientific culture.
More than Vestiges Photographic Archives of Ancient Mexico
Authors: Mraz John
Published: February 2024

This article explores the importance of photographic archives (fototecas) in preserving the sources with which to create a national visual history and identity. It charts the arc from imperial photography of Mexico, lodged in European and U.S. archives, to the development of Mexican institutions dedicated to the preservation of the photographic patrimony. Particular attention is paid to the photography of indigenous peoples by foreigners and Mexicans, and the location of the archives in which that imagery is held. Some of the archives mentioned are found in Mexico: Archivo General de la Nación, the Fototeca Nacional-Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), the Museo Nacional, and the Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas (INPI). Others are located elsewhere: the Smithsonian Institute, the Getty Museum, the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. Among the photographers mentioned are: Desiré Charnay, León Diguet, Teoberto Maler, Frederick Starr, Carl Lumholtz, Julio de la Fuente, and Nacho López.
“¡Había ahí un Archivo!” Acts of Sovereignty between Burial and Exhibition
Authors: Rufer Mario
Published: February 2024

In 1879, in those territories that are currently part of the Argentinian Patagonia and few months after the genocide carried out against the natives, euphemistically called the “Conquest of the Desert”, the prolific writer, geographer, politician, and attorney Estanislao Zeballos organized a mission in order to “survey” and “explore” the recently conquered area. He thus gathered – though the correct word would be “sacked” – human skulls, bones that still haunted the battlefields, cult objects, clothing, and metal artifacts. During that journey Zeballos discovered, buried in the middle of a sand dune, a forgotten archive: boxes containing press clippings, XIX century correspondence between the national government and the Indigenous cacicazgos, account entries, governmental stamps pertaining to the cacicazgos, and a Castilian dictionary. This text works out the relationship between this buried “Indian archive” and the remains and objects looted from the defeated population, to be collected and then exhibited. The article attempts to demonstrate that if we read the buried Archive of Salinas Grandes along with that collection of items, gathered in order to be exhibited, like two distinct but nevertheless continuous operations pertaining to the construction of a sovereign discourse, we could better understand the power that the signifying matrix separating culture and history, chaos and state, ritual and politics, archive and trophy, tradition and sovereignty still acquires in the present.
Queer Fragmentation and Trans Urban Aesthetics from Cyberpunk to Cottagecore
Authors: Barbeau E. , Blanchard E. , Qişin L. , Almeida V. S.
Published: February 2024

Queerness and transidentity have had a durable relationship with cyberpunk aesthetics, reflected in both cultural works and academic reflections. There is an evident attraction in worlds where technological prowess allows one to evolve beyond one’s corporeal body, or to change it at will. The noir explorations of themes such as discrimination and sex work are also strong sources of resonance with common trans and queer experiences. Culturally, this aesthetic is indissociable from its urban component, with the serendipity, diversity, and density of the city often at the centre of the stories told. This reflects the observed tendency of queer people to congregate in urban centres, where minorities are present in sufficient numbers to create social communities with freer explorations around gender. This appeared to be one of the central aesthetic currents of the global trans community until the early twenty-first century. However, we now observe a change with the rise of more rural aspirations, exemplified by the recent popularity of the cottagecore aesthetic. There seems to be a growing desire to retreat from society at large and isolate in tight-knit homogeneous communities, replacing co-spatiality with online connectedness. This could be the result of multiple factors, among which two seem central: the assimilation of many queers linked to the dissolution of greater federated queer communities, and the increased prioritisation of online interactions. Drawing from human geography, literary analysis and a corpus from Tumblr (a microblogging network) this article thus seeks to explore how aspirational and representational depictions of queerness evolved in tandem with its physical and online practices, transforming the historically close relationship between queerness and urbanity.
Les Défis du Lien Entre Humanitaire et Développement le Cas du “Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development”
Authors: Urbaniak Lukasz , Casqueira Cardoso João
Published: February 2024

The article explores the links between humanitarian action and aid to development, focusing more specifically on the model Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development. Taking this model as an example, the theoretical and practical challenges of this relationship are explored, including the foundational principles of both humanitarian action and aid to development. In this respect, the contradictions between the key rules of both perspectives are underlined, especially when it comes to the influence of governments on agendas, strategies, and operational options. Yet, the practice seems to show new possibilities of articulation, if not of junction, between humanitarian action and aid to development. In the light of recent experiences, including the World Humanitarian Summit, both strategies may mutually combine, in order to benefit local populations. The principle of humanitarian subsidiary is suggested as one of the potential element in this equation.
Placing Care Work in the Future of Work Discourse
Authors: Blackman Tyler , Sportel Terah S. , Walton-Roberts Margaret
Published: February 2024

In this paper, we argue that the importance of care work and migration is undervalued and undertheorized in current understandings of the future of work. Discussions of the future of work are predominantly technocentric. Focus tends toward speculative predictions and the implications of supposedly inevitable technological advances that will lead to evolving adaptation skills and job loss. This prevailing discourse prioritises economic development and productivity, which is reinforced by institutional support at the global scale, influencing policy and practice. Although the demand for care work continues to grow globally, its meaningful inclusion in the future of work discourse is limited, and arguably effaced. We emphasise that the definition of care work is expansive, is difficult to quantify, and it cannot be easily automated. Similarly, high-income countries increasingly rely on migration flows to meet their care work needs, and in turn middle- and low-income countries rely on remittances to sustain their development and people’s livelihoods. In this paper, we offer a conceptual corrective to better situate the dense context of care work. In doing so, we draw on valuable perspectives on diverse economies, decent work and sustainable livelihoods, global care chains, and glocalisation. Incorporating well established insights from within these foci will lead to more effective discussion and a policy agenda for the future of work that takes socially just care work into consideration.
Becoming Digital Entrepreneurs African Students in China
Authors: Chen Lin , Pang Ching Lin
Published: February 2024

Under the framework of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation in the twenty-first century, a growing number of students from the South, especially those from African countries that enjoy strong ties with China, have enrolled themselves in Chinese universities. In China’s higher education sector, their number had grown from 1,384 students in 1999 to 81,562 students in 2018. This study was based on in-depth interviews with 18 African university students that were triangulated with participant observations and a literature review. The participants were interviewed offline and online on social media platforms inside the Internet Firewall of China – such as Microblogs and WeChat – and Facebook from 2019 to 2020. This study aimed to understand how the participants discovered and explored new opportunities in digital entrepreneurship as university students in China. Although engagement in digital entrepreneurship can lead to empowerment and new forms of belongingness, however, new challenges and setbacks can emerge concurrently to disrupt their entrepreneurial trajectory. In terms of opportunities, the participants drew on educational, social and cultural capital to establish their start-ups, but their relative success was challenged by disruptions in the digital ecosystem and the “zero Covid-19” policy in China.
Malignant wound aetiology, diagnosis and management: a case series and literature review
Authors: Fang Lauren , Simman Richard , Workman Lauren , Ayoub Samar , Bratton Camille
Published: February 2024

Objective:

Malignant wounds develop when neoplastic cells invade the skin either locally or by lymphatic and haematogenous spread. They can present as hard-to-heal wounds and underlying causes include: primary skin cancer; metastasis of extracutaneous primary malignancy; malignant transformation of a hard-to-heal wound; iatrogenic injury; and cutaneous forms of cancers of non-skin origin. High clinical suspicion for a malignant wound should be confirmed with skin biopsy. The aim of this case series is to highlight a combination of both clinically clear cutaneous malignancies and not-so-obvious wounds caused by malignancy.

Method:

This case series examines patients with malignant wounds of varying aetiology and appearance. For each case, we explain the pathophysiology, atypical features, diagnostic approach and treatment. We also discuss types of wound biopsy and general wound management principles.

Results:

Among the 11 cases analysed using descriptive statistics, median wound duration before presentation at our clinic was one year, while median age at presentation was 65 years. Our case series included the following diagnoses: cutaneous metastasis of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast (n=2); cutaneous metastasis of colorectal adenocarcinoma (n=1); Marjolin's ulcer (n=1), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (n=2), primary cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (n=1), metastatic malignant melanoma (n=1), cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (n=1), cutaneous angiosarcoma (n=1), Kaposi sarcoma (n=1) and recurrent tonsillar SCC with osteoradionecrosis (n=1); one case had both BCC and SCC.

Conclusion:

Punch and excisional biopsies were the most frequently used diagnostic techniques. Local wound therapy addressed bleeding, malodour, exudate, pain and infection. However, wound healing is usually achieved once the underlying malignancy is treated. In advanced or metastatic disease, palliative wound care aims to prevent exacerbation of existing wounds and focuses on patient comfort.
Vaginal symptoms in the menopause: cause, impact and treatment combination options
Authors: Brown Pearl Clark
Published: February 2024

Vaginal changes during the menopause may cause women to present to their practice nurse. Pearl Clark Brown explains diagnosis and management.

Vaginal symptoms which appear around the time of the menopause often occur as a result of declining levels of oestrogen within the epithelial tissues. Vaginal dryness, painful sex, itching, inflammation, burning and soreness are common symptoms around this time. It is thought that up to 80% of women will develop vaginal symptoms in varying degrees once menopausal. The effect that this can have on theindividual can be far reaching, impacting on normal day to day tasks such as sitting, the ability to have sex and being able to take part in exercise. Treatment options include vaginal oestrogen, non hormonal vaginal moisturisers, use of personal lubricants and emollients for washing with. Optimal relief can involve a combined treatment approach used regularly alongside a sliding scale of product use according to the severity of symptoms in response to stressors such as sex, stress or situations known to exacerbate symptoms.
Epigenetic Correction and Early Brain Pharmacotherapy in Down Syndrome
Authors: Rondal Jean Adolphe
Published: February 2024

Down syndrome (DS) is the most frequent autosomal aneuploidy. It refers to a genetic condition due to the triplication of human chromosome 21 (Hsa21). Disruption of the phenotype is thought to be the result of gene-dosage imbalance. This phenotype is always characterized by neurodevelopmental anomalies. Additionally, persons with DS have higher risks of several medical challenges. These include congenital heart disease, susceptibility to viruses and immune defects, metabolic changes, and hematopoietic abnormalities. In recent years, experimental work has been conducted with the aim of correcting overexpressed genes on chromosome 21 or silencing the extra chromosome 21 to normalize genetic expression. The paper examines the clinical feasibility of these attempts and identifies several caveats. Improving neurogenesis, dendritic density and synaptic connectivity with pharmacological substances is more at hand with the current technical knowledge and legal provisos.
SHORT AND TRANSVERSE VANCOUVER B1 FRACTURES AROUND A CEMENTED POLISHED TAPERED STEM: BEWARE!
Authors: Powell-Bowns Matilda F. R. , Martin Damien , Bowley Abbey , Moran Matthew , Clement Nick D. , Scott Chloe E. H.
Published: February 2024

Aim of this study was to identify reoperation rates in patients with short oblique and transverse fractures around a well fixed cemented polished taper slip stem and to determine any associations with treatment failure.

Retrospective cohort study of 31 patients with AO transverse or short oblique Vancouver B1 PFFs around THA (total hip arthroplasty) cemented taper slip stems: 12 male (39%); mean age 74±11.9 (range 44–91); mean BMI 28.5±1.4 (range 16–48); and median ASA 3. Patient journeys were assessed, re-interventions reviewed. The primary outcome measure was reoperation.

Time from primary THA to fracture was 11.3±7.8yrs (0.5–26yrs). Primary surgical management was fixation in 27/31 and rTHA (revision total hip arthroplasty) in 4/31. 10 of 31 (32%) patients required reoperation, 9 within 2 years of fracture: 1 following rTHA and 8 following ORIF. The commonest mode of failure was non-union (n=6). No significant associations with reoperation requirement were identified. Kaplan-Meier free from reoperation was 67.4% (49.8–85.0 95% CI) at 2 years and this was unaffected by initial management with ORIF or rTHA (Log rank 0.898). Of those reoperated, 6/10 required multiple reoperations to obtain either bony union or a stable revision construct and 13% ultimately required proximal femoral endoprostheses. The relative risk of 1 year mortality was 1.6 (0.25 to 10.1 95%CI) among patients who required reoperation compared to those who did not.

These are difficult fractures to manage, should not be underestimated and patients should be counselled that there is a 30% risk of reoperation and 20% of requiring multiple reoperations.
A sociology of forgiveness in relationships: why the sociology of personal life should be interested in forgiveness
Authors: Abbott Owen
Published: February 2024

Abundant research in adjacent disciplines shows forgiveness (including forgiving, not forgiving, being forgiven and not being forgiven) to be an ordinary feature of how personal relationships are maintained, repaired and rescinded. Sociologists, however, have scarcely considered forgiveness at all. This article shows why sociologists of personal life should be interested in forgiveness, and how this contributes to sociological interpretations of conflict and repair in relationships. It is argued that sociologists of personal life should be interested in forgiveness because it seems to be part of the ordinary vernacular through which relationships are made sense of. It is also argued that sociologists of personal life can deliver a perspective on forgiveness in relationships that is missing from existing forgiveness research agendas.
Experimental and simulation investigation of stereo-DIC via a deep learning algorithm based on initial speckle positioning technology
Authors: Dai Minglu , Wei Kang , Gao Ben , Zhou Bin , Shao Xinxing
Published: February 2024

For the deep-learning-based stereo-digital image correlation technique, the initial speckle position is crucial as it influences the accuracy of the generated dataset and deformation fields. To ensure measurement accuracy, an optimized extrinsic parameter estimation algorithm is proposed in this study to determine the rotation and translation matrix of the plane in which the speckle is located between the world coordinate system and the left camera coordinate system. First, the accuracy of different extrinsic parameter estimation algorithms was studied by simulations. Subsequently, the dataset of stereo speckle images was generated using the optimized extrinsic parameters. Finally, the improved dual-branch CNN deconvolution architecture was proposed to output displacements and strains simultaneously. Simulation results indicate that DAS-Net exhibits enhanced expressive capabilities, as evidenced by a reduction in displacement errors compared to previous research. The experimental results reveal that the mean absolute percentage error between the stereo-DIC results and the generated dataset is less than 2%, suggesting that the initial speckle positioning technology effectively minimizes the discrepancy between the images in the dataset and those obtained experimentally. Furthermore, the DAS-Net algorithm accurately measures the displacement and strain fields as well as their morphological characteristics.
Accurate Zernike-Corrected Phase Screens for Arbitrary Power Spectra
Authors: Bachmann David , Isoard Mathieu , Shatokhin Vyacheslav , Sorelli Giacomo , Buchleitner Andreas
Published: February 2024

Wave propagation through random continuous media remains an important fundamental problem with applications ranging from remote sensing to quantum communication. Typically, such media are characterized by smooth refractive index fluctuations whose impact on the wave can be captured by the stochastic parabolic equation. The latter can be solved numerically by means of a split-step method, which replaces the continuous medium with a number of discrete phase screens derived from the medium’s power spectrum. We introduce and benchmark highly accurate and efficient hybrid phase screens for arbitrary power spectra which are based on the combination of Zernike and Fourier phase screens.
Never Too Much—More talent in football (always) leads to more success
Authors: Long Ashley M. , Graf Mario , Bilalić Merim
Published: February 2024

Though it may appear counterintuitive, certain positive attributes can eventually have negative consequences when taken to an extreme. This concept is exemplified in sports, where an increase in talent among team members initially leads to improved success, but beyond a certain threshold, excessive talent can adversely affect the team. This occurrence is known as the Too Much Talent (TMT) effect, wherein status conflicts among highly skilled players can hinder team performance, particularly in sports that require coordination and cooperation. While early evidence supported the TMT effect in team sports, its validity has recently been challenged. In this study, we analyzed a comprehensive dataset consisting of 780 data points across 42 seasons from seven top European football (soccer) leagues to examine the TMT effect’s presence. Our findings reveal that football does not exhibit the TMT effect. Instead, we observed a consistent, positive correlation between the number of skilled players on a team and team success. Additionally, talent did not display diminishing returns, as its impact on success remained stable even at the highest concentrations of talent. We relate our results to existing theories and propose that future research comparing more individualistic and interdependent team sports could further enhance the field.