Search Results (539)

The Eastern Mediterranean has always been a space where religious traditions, geopolitical antagonisms, and migratory waves intersect, yet existing literature treats religious diplomacy, climate geopolitics, and the securitization of migration as separate fields, leaving a significant research gap for 2015–2025. Drawing on Appleby’s notion of the “ambivalence of the sacred,” this study proposes the Eastern Mediterranean as a “religious geopolitical zone”—a space in which Islamic and Christian institutions move simultaneously, rather than sequentially, between humanitarian dialogue and securitization under accelerating climate pressure. Combining Critical Geopolitics, Copenhagen School securitization theory, and Environmental Peacebuilding, it applies geopolitical discourse analysis to texts by the Vatican, Al-Azhar, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Diyanet, and Sant’Egidio, together with UNHCR, IOM, and IPCC data. The analysis shows that religious rhetoric functions concurrently as a securitizing “speech-act” that legitimizes exclusionary policies through cultural nationalism and a foundation for humanitarian cooperation, as evidenced by the Sant’Egidio Humanitarian Corridors and the Vatican–Al-Azhar dialogue. Climate change likewise operates simultaneously as a material multiplier of tension and as a semiotic resource that either reinforces securitization or establishes a common moral basis for interfaith environmental action. The findings offer an analytical model that enriches securitization theory, Critical Geopolitics, and the religious diplomacy literature, with implications for actors seeking to move the region toward sustainable cooperation. Full article

Dominant rationalist and neoliberal frameworks have often privatized love by treating it as an intimate emotion detached from institutions, power, and collective life. This article examines when love becomes publicly consequential as a sociological force. Using an interpretive, cross-cultural, and dialogical approach, it brings into conversation three situated sociological traditions developed in Brazil, Italy, and South Korea. Rather than comparing nation-states as fixed units, the article analyses how different sociological traditions interpret shared public problems through distinct moral vocabularies and institutional contexts. Three public grammars of love emerge: struggles over inequality and ecological justice in Brazil; tensions between expertise and democratic mediation in Italy; and questions of social empathy, hyper-competition, and post-growth transformation in South Korea. Love also appears as an ambivalent force that may generate cohesion or conflict, inclusion or exclusion. The article concludes that de-privatizing love broadens sociological understanding of how emotions shape collective life and demonstrates the analytical value of dialogical engagement between sociological traditions for reconstructing the public meanings of love across different socio-political contexts. Full article

This paper argues for the Catholic Church to receive and nurture the synod on synodality toward transformative decolonization through stronger and humbler engagement with Indigenous communities (primarily from North and South America) and their worldviews that parallel, augment, or challenge ecclesial doctrines and praxes laid out in the synod. The paper will first analyze the trend toward decolonization in the synodal process and then propose two clear opportunities for decolonial synodality informed by Catholic–Indigenous dialogue: the church as the people of God and as a community firmly rooted in and attentive to local contexts and, thus, place and space. Following these areas of relative harmony, the paper will highlight two regions likely to produce tension. The first is the significantly different worldviews of Indigenous cultures from the West that still dominate the church’s vision, language, and practice. The second is the possible refusal of Indigenous individuals or communities to engage in an “ecclesiology of recognition” that seeks to “include” Indigenous people and perspectives while exploiting them without challenging or changing the imperial and colonial heritages of Christianity. The paper will end by reaffirming the worth and necessity of decolonial synodality imagined, explored, and realized in creative and tense relationships with Indigenous communities. Full article

Scholarship on civic engagement and democratic culture has long emphasized dialogue, inclusion, and the recognition of marginalized voices, yet the legal and civic status of individuals with disabilities—particularly those with Down syndrome—remains insufficiently examined within this literature. This article addresses that gap by exploring how civic education and civic engagement, as supported by law at public universities, can better account for disability as a matter of democratic membership, dignity, and participation. Drawing on historical and contemporary analysis, the article examines the persistence and transformation of eugenic narratives supported by law as one underappreciated mechanism through which exclusion and devaluation continue to shape civic life. Historically, eugenic ideas influenced law, culture, and public policy by normalizing hierarchies based on health, appearance, and perceived ability. Contemporary forms of such reasoning, while often less explicit, continue to surface across legal and cultural divides, raising important questions for civic education and public deliberation. By situating disability within broader debates about civic inclusion, empathy, and democratic formation at institutions supported by law, this article argues for a more robust and balanced paradigm of civic engagement—one that critically confronts exclusionary narratives while affirming the civic agency, legal rights, and perspectives of individuals with disabilities, including those with Down syndrome and with respect to comprehensive considerations in prenatal contexts. Full article

Duli Xingyi 獨立性易 (1596–1672) has often been variously interpreted as a Ming loyalist, a marginal Ōbaku monk, a physician, a calligrapher, or a cultural mediator. This article argues that such fragmented interpretations overlook the relatively coherent evaluative framework that connected Duli’s diverse activities. Rooted in the literati culture of Jiangnan, this evaluative framework developed in conjunction with an interconnected cultural repertoire comprising moral character, textual learning, literary accomplishment, artistic cultivation, and practical expertise. Together, they informed how Duli judged persons, texts, practices, and institutions. To explain how this framework informed judgments and choices across changing historical settings—and how those settings conditioned the mobilization and social efficacy of the repertoire—the article proposes the concept of the “Human Road.” Developed in dialogue with studies of Sino-Japanese exchange that have emphasized imported books, trade records, and reception, the Human Road does not simply refer to the movement of people, nor does it merely add human actors to the study of textual circulation. Rather, it examines how historically formed evaluative frameworks and cultural repertoires informed actors’ judgments and choices, and how changing institutional and local environments conditioned the expression and social efficacy of the resulting actions. In Duli’s case, the judgments and choices informed by his Jiangnan evaluative framework contributed to growing tensions within the institutional setting of the Ōbaku community, whereas in Iwakuni his positive evaluation of Yoshikawa Hiroyoshi was reciprocated by recognition and patronage, enabling the cultural repertoire organized by that framework to be mobilized through medicine, poetry, calligraphy, ritual expertise, and local affairs. Drawing on letters, poems, prefaces, local records, and personal writings, this article shows that texts were produced, interpreted, circulated, and preserved through human relationships, embodied knowledge, and changing social environments. Duli’s case demonstrates that the movement of persons did more than carry knowledge across regions: it set in motion processes of judgment, response, and relationship formation through which texts, practices, and cultural projects acquired significance in early modern Japan. Full article

The rapid transformation of rural societies and the progressive decline of traditional livelihoods have placed numerous expressions of intangible cultural heritage at risk of disappearance. In the Saraguro territory of southern Ecuador, muleteering (arriería) historically functioned as a means of transportation, trade, and cultural exchange, facilitating the transmission of knowledge, values, and practices among generations and diverse social groups. This study examines muleteering as a form of living heritage and explores its revitalization through intercultural dialogue and the recovery of ancestral knowledge. A qualitative ethnographic approach was employed, integrating documentary analysis, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with former muleteers, community elders, cultural leaders, and local residents. The findings indicate that muleteering contributed significantly to territorial connectivity, economic exchange, collective memory, and the preservation of traditional ecological knowledge related to mobility, animal management, and community cooperation. Participants recognized muleteering as a central element of Saraguro’s cultural identity and emphasized its role in fostering intercultural interaction and inter-generational learning. The study concludes that the revitalization of muleteering through dialogue of knowledge can contribute to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, strengthening cultural continuity, and supporting culturally sustainable development in indigenous territories. Full article

The article frames the co-design activities developed in Phase 3 of the DeinSite project, aimed at promoting product innovation in traditional craft districts through dialogue between young designers, artisans, museums, and SMEs in Southern Italy. It introduces the DeinSite Co-Design Framework, a replicable methodological model integrating three complementary types of co-design–Open, Participatory, and Prototype-Led Co-Design–that guide the entire design process, from field research to co-creation to digital experimentation. Within this framework, the article delves into the Manus Maris workshop, focused on cameo and coral, a key sector of Campania’s productive activity. The workshop interprets the marine environment as a creative, cultural, and productive ecosystem, inspiring new narratives and formal languages that combine artisanal memory and technological innovation. Through collaborative activities, physical–digital prototyping, and an intergenerational exchange between designers and craftsmen, Manus Maris has generated experimental jewellery collections reinterpreting the local tangible and intangible heritage. The findings highlight the framework’s potential as a tool for activating systemic innovation in Southern Italy’s artisanal districts, enhancing museums as cultural and production hubs and promoting new synergies between tradition and contemporary design. The proposed model is a transferable methodology, useful for regenerating “Handmade in Italy” supply chains and constructing territorial ecosystems oriented towards innovation, sustainability, and international competitiveness. Full article

This article examines how contemporary domestic noir fiction and its online reception relate to the pathologization of women’s testimony. Combining feminist narratology, critical phenomenology, and Ian Hacking’s concept of “making up people,” we analyze Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train and A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window alongside Goodreads reviews of both novels. We argue that these texts mobilize women’s psychological distress—addiction, agoraphobia, depression, trauma, and gaslighting—as sources of narrative suspense while simultaneously casting doubt on women’s credibility as witnesses to their own experiences. Drawing on a thematically coded corpus of Goodreads reviews, we identify a spectrum of reader responses, ranging from diagnostic and moralizing readings that reproduce testimonial injustice to empathic and feminist readings that challenge pathologizing assumptions. By bringing textual analysis and reader-response research into dialogue, the article demonstrates that the credibility of female narrators is not determined by narrative form alone but is negotiated through broader cultural assumptions about women’s reliability and authority. Domestic noir thus emerges as a key site where women’s suffering becomes a contested object of interpretation in contemporary reading culture. Full article

This paper examines how conversational daily deep dive news podcasts build journalistic authority and legitimacy through what we call the “journalist-as-guest” (JAG) format. Applying a deep analytical listening methodology that honors the aurality of the medium and positions listening as a core analytical method, we analyzed eight daily deep dive news podcasts from Canada and Australia, attending to how sonic elements interact with conversational performance to produce podcasting’s characteristic intimacy and parasocial listener bonds that support authority and legitimacy claims for journalism. Our findings expand on our previous identification of the JAG format as a key element of explanatory-type daily deep dive podcasts. Here, we reveal how it operates through three key mechanisms: recurring self-referential speech that reinforces journalistic cultural belonging; intentional unpacking of the reporting process to reveal behind-the-scenes work; and the careful construction of journalists as subject-matter experts. Together, these mechanisms transform performative conversation into metajournalism, creating a space in which journalistic expertise is displayed and validated through colleague-to-colleague dialogue. We term this dynamic “intimate authority.” We argue that the JAG format capitalizes on podcasting’s affordances for intimacy, parasociality, and extended metajournalistic conversation to invite audiences into the news-making process while positioning journalists as credible experts and sense-makers. In doing so, it functions as a mechanism for establishing authority and legitimacy claims in digital media environments. As daily news podcasting becomes increasingly central to remediation efforts aimed at restoring trust in journalism, both legacy and independent news podcasters appear to be counting on the JAG format as a strategic response to concurrent crises of news avoidance and relevance. Full article

Ecological degradation is accelerating worldwide, yet the losses of species, ecosystems, and landscapes often remain socially and culturally unmourned. This article explores how contemplative ecology may offer a pathway for engaging with ecological grief. Drawing on the case study of Lab Landschapspijn Veluwe in the Netherlands, it examines how contemplative practices—such as contemplative dialogue and contemplative walking—can help participants attune to ecological loss in degraded landscapes. Using heuristic inquiry and interpretative phenomenological analysis, the study investigates how participants perceive and articulate tangible ecological losses and their emotional, moral, and spiritual dimensions. The findings show that contemplative practices can function as forms of contemplative witnessing, making ecological loss more perceptible, grievable, emotionally acknowledged, and relationally processed. Contemplative practices may foster an open-ended engagement with ecological loss; an orientation that allows grief, wonder, uncertainty, and care to coexist without demanding immediate resolution. Therefore, contemplative ecology may cultivate the emotional, existential and relational capacities required to remain engaged with ecological crisis. Full article

The Porous Line is a drawing inquiry that uses materials and processes to engage in a dialogue with a suburban ecosystem. I follow the physicist David Bohm’s proposal to use dialogue as a mode of engagement where habitual modes of thought are suspended, a form of non-judgmental curiosity. I reflect on how immersing a large roll of French imported paper in my everyday environs reveals the porousness between nature and culture. The binary separation of nature and culture has undergone significant criticism as we deal with the climate crisis. As a foundational medium within western art and thought, how can drawing communicate this growing ontological shift? The essay engages in dialogue with Yolngu art from Yirrkala as a guide on what an ecological art practice entails. Their commitment to work with what ‘country’ provides has resulted in innovative and thoughtful new works. In response to propositions seen in Yolngu artworks, this essay engages with place, materiality, and relationality through the process of merging line and ground, the fundamentals of drawing, physically and conceptually. I reflect on the challenges that need to be addressed within western ontologies to develop an ecological approach in drawing. Full article

The Liezi constitutes an important link between the Lao-Zhuang tradition and later Daoism, yet it has long remained marginal in scholarship due to controversies surrounding its provenance. Moving beyond debates over textual authenticity, this article examines Liezi’s reflections on life and death through a comparative dialogue with Plato’s account of the soul’s journey with you 游 as a bridging notion. In the Liezi, life is construed as a temporary wandering and death an inevitable return. This understanding weakens fixed subjectivity and normative structures, articulating a mode of cultivation that emphasizes accommodation, detachment, and the coexistence with the myriad things in a quasi-religious cosmos. In Plato, by contrast, the soul persists as a moral subject journeying between the sensible and intelligible worlds. It is integrated into a religious cosmic order that unites epistemic with ethical dimensions and is ultimately oriented toward its purification and return to the intelligible world. The comparison reveals a structural divergence between the two thinkers in the ultimate placement of human existence, while also demonstrating how cross-cultural comparison can generate mutually illuminating insights and reopen reflection on the Liezi’s place in intellectual history. Full article

This paper explores the complex nature of ethical leadership and decision-making in educational settings by reviewing the learning content of a master’s subject in an educational leadership course. The paper focuses on how effective ethical leadership requires a multidimensional, context-sensitive approach rather than simple rules or linear paradigms. Drawing on foundational and contemporary scholarship, the paper discusses how leaders address “wicked problems” such as equity gaps, data ethics, and conflicting stakeholder values. It emphasises moral reasoning rooted in dialogue, role theory, and political literacy, acknowledging that institutional cultures, power dynamics, and norms influence decision-making. The article discusses how practical tools, such as ethical decision-making staircases, dilemma mapping, and reflection protocols, help leaders balance values and foster inclusive, morally resilient communities. A discussion of the increasing ethical challenges of data analytics and surveillance, and an advocacy for transparency, dignity, and data minimalism, is presented. The paper concludes that preparing ethical leaders involves immersive experiences such as case studies and simulations, alongside the development of moral courage and networks to support systemic change. By integrating theory, context, and transformative practices, this paper offers a comprehensive framework for nurturing leaders who navigate ambiguity and advance justice, care, and integrity across diverse educational environments. Full article

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly important in rural revitalization, building consensus among multiple stakeholders and developing participatory digital co-creation platforms has grown increasingly urgent. However, existing large language model (LLM) systems predominantly adopt a one-shot generation paradigm, making it challenging to accurately capture villagers’ cultural aspirations and frequently resulting in a significant disconnect between design outputs and community expectations. This situation reveals deficiencies in progressive deliberation mechanisms and cultural controllability. To address these issues, this study proposes a multimodal Participatory Landscape Demand Generation (PLDG) system to enhance AI-generated dialogue controllability, facilitate effective cultural translation in sensitive rural contexts, and promote sustainable development where landscape design both drives and reflects rural revitalization. The system leverages LLMs to simulate stakeholder participatory interactions in village landscape design scenarios. Using culturally distinctive Chinese villages as case studies, the research conducts multi-role simulated dialogues, multimodal semantic extraction, and iterative consensus-building, and evaluates the resultant data to generate landscape design proposals. The results indicate that the PLDG system significantly improves participation efficiency among diverse design stakeholders and enhances the sustainability of design decisions. Compared to conventional methods, metrics such as cultural compatibility, villager participation, and design innovation show substantial improvements. These findings demonstrate the considerable potential of human-AI collaboration in future rural planning. This study introduces the Culture Constraint-Driven Rural Landscape AI Collaborative Design Framework (PLDG), validating its practical efficacy in identifying culturally sensitive elements, ensuring cultural congruence, facilitating community participation, and fostering design innovation. Consequently, it provides a reusable, iterative operational tool for the digital renewal of sustainable rural landscapes. Full article

This essay considers the ambiguities of over-reliance on medical–technological solutions to human problems, particularly the problem of mortality, and suggests that a recovery of dialogue and relationality, at multiple levels, would aid in restoring meaning to the experience of illness and dying. Drawing on the work of Atul Gawande, Daniel Callahan, and Ivan Illich, it examines the cultural losses that ensue when distorted understandings of medicine’s task are enshrined in conventional practice. Both authors suggest that something is to be gained, for individuals and for cultures, in learning not only to eliminate or assuage suffering but also to bear it. In view of their insights, the work of Pope John Paul II and Bishop Erik Varden, O.S.C.O., and the concrete examples of a Christian physician and Christian patients are all examined to illustrate the special contribution of Christianity to the interpretation and bearing of human suffering. Full article