Search Results (66)

Dies Buch gehört dem König (This Book Belongs to the King), written and published in 1843 by the German Romantic author Bettina von Arnim, is a quasi-open letter, presented as a series of fictional dialogues with traces of a novel. Dedicated to the newly crowned King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the letter unfolds social grievances and aims to persuade Friedrich Wilhelm to act like a just king. Due to its delicate socio-critical impetus, the letter does so through strategies of obfuscation and by using a richly pictorial, seemingly naive and lavish way of speech rather than taking an openly reproachful stance. Crucially, von Arnim does not install herself as the letter’s speaker but instead fictionalizes the letter and presents Goethe’s mother, Catharina Elisabeth Goethe, as the letter’s primary voice (‘Frau Rat’). By using a well-respected figure of the ruling class as the letter’s main voice, von Arnim aimed at minimizing its scandalous potential. But even prior to publishing the letter, von Arnim had already managed to trick Friedrich Wilhelm and the Prussian censors herself: by fusing the book’s title and dedication, she paratextually outwitted both the censors and the King, whose permission she sought precisely to bypass Prussian censorship. This article shows how von Arnim managed to avoid a larger scandal both textually by implementing semi-fictional devices and paratextually by presenting the letter as an affirmation of Friedrich Wilhelm IV and his policies. Full article

This study aims to understand how religious affective content in the digital realm influences epistemic authority, social imaginaries, and religious beliefs among young adults (individuals between 18 and 35) with a university education and who identify as Christian, Hindu, or Muslim in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Data indicate the growing role of digital platforms as epistemic sources for religious maintenance, while families, private sacred-text teachings, religious leaders, and the community continue to serve as primary sources. Cultural capital, such as higher education and social skills, does not necessarily make respondents psychologically or emotionally resilient to be able and effectively deal with moral distrust and hate speech on social media. In daily life individuals feel cross-pressured between their religious attitudes, and secular educational institutions and government agencies who promote liberal values while perceiving religion as a threat, despite not consistently adhering to those liberal values themselves. Hence, this experienced injustice in the city, enhanced by the negative framing of religion in digital media, may influence the social judgement of individuals and the processes of alienation, polarization and radicalization. Full article

The Boxer Rebellion, as a significant historical episode in modern Chinese history, has been primarily studied through official archives and Boxer propaganda Posters. Chinese Christian literature remain underutilized in current scholarship. Quan Huo Ji 拳祸记 (The Record of Boxer Rebellion), is an important ecclesiastical document, compiled by the Catholic priest Li Wenyu. While reflecting an apologetic stance, it nonetheless provides valuable insights from the perspective of common people and narrates the experiences of marginalized individuals, offering a systematic account of the suffering endured by various dioceses. Within this text, three categories of common people emerge. First, the lay faithful, who, under the violent threat of “apostasy or death”, remained steadfast in their faith. Second, anti-Christian civilians, whose motivations—though often framed as expressions of national or social grievance—may in fact reflect a release of personal frustrations and desires. Third, those sympathetic to Christians either maintained a neutral stance or offered assistance within their limited capacity. These individual experiences, often overlooked by mainstream historiography, compensate for the limitations of conventional analytical frameworks. They also vividly illustrate how ordinary people navigated between forced compromise and active resistance. Through a microhistorical lens, these personal trajectories offer a multi-dimensional portrayal of the survival dilemmas. Full article

Migration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic has long reflected Hispaniola’s intertwined histories of grievances, distrust, inequality, and interdependence. Under President Luis Abinader (2020–2025), this relationship gained renewed political significance as regional instability and Haiti’s institutional collapse made migration a central concern of governance. This study examines the Dominican state’s discourse on Haitian migration through a combination of historiographical interpretation and discourse-historical frame analysis. Using the diagnostic–prognostic–motivational triad, this analysis examines 26 official statements, legal documents, and media articles to trace how notions of order, security, and humanitarian responsibility have structured migration policy during this period. The findings identify four interrelated logics—securitisation, nativism, racialisation, and statelessness—that shape how migration is problematised and managed. While overtly xenophobic or racist language has largely disappeared from official discourse, older anti-Haitian hierarchies persist beneath a technocratic and humanitarian surface. Deportations, biometric border management, mass detentions, violence, and preferential bureaucratic practices are presented as neutral governance, even as they disproportionately and unlawfully affect darker-skinned citizens and migrants of Haitian descent. The analysis suggests that Dominican migration governance represents neither rupture nor continuity, but rather a rearticulation of narratives of security, sovereignty, and national identity in a context of contemporary securitising issues in Haiti. Full article

This article highlights the phenomenon of marginalized populations and minorities who espouse white supremacist ideology despite their own ethnic and cultural backgrounds within the USA. This study focusses on how non-Caucasian individuals are attracted to this ideology, its organizations, and how this contradiction is reconciled. Of particular interest is the rise in gun violence or the advocacy of gun violence by non-white individuals in the United States harboring white supremacist ideals and identifying with those principles. Statistical data for national violence is limited to general categories by state and federal law enforcement. This article examines public comments made by high-profile individuals as examples reflecting current attitudes under examination as well as violent acts resulting in deaths perpetrated by minorities motivated by supremacist ideals. Findings suggest that non-Caucasian or minority individuals from multivariant ethnic groups who espouse Nazi ideals are not following a singular objective or unified under one rubric but have mixed motivations rooted in establishing legitimacy and “white proximity”. White supremacist ideology is redefined to suit personal grievances unique to an individuals’ cultural group and/or needs. Full article

Smart cities offer new opportunities for urban governance and sustainable development. However, at the current stage, the construction and development of smart cities generally exhibit a technology-driven tendency, neglecting real resident demand, which contradicts the “human-centric” principle. Traditional top-down methods of demand collection struggle to capture the dynamics and heterogeneity of public demand. At the same time, government service platforms, as one dimension of smart city construction, have accumulated massive amounts of user-generated data, providing new solutions for this challenge. This paper aims to construct a big data-driven analytical framework for dynamically identifying and accurately forecasting core resident demand. The study uses Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, China, as a case study, utilising user messages from People.cn spanning 2011 to 2023. These messages cover various domains, including urban construction, healthcare, education, and transportation, as the data source. The People.cn message board is China’s most significant nationwide online political platform. Its institutionalised feedback mechanism ensures data content focuses on highly representative specific grievances, rather than the broad emotional expressions on social media. The study employs user messages from People.cn from 2011 to 2023 as its data source, encompassing urban construction, healthcare, education, and transportation. First, a large language model (LLM) was used to preprocess and clean the raw data. Subsequently, the BERTopic model was applied to identify ten core demand themes and construct their monthly time series, thereby overcoming the limitations of traditional methods in short-text semantic recognition. Finally, by integrating variational mode decomposition (VMD) with support vector machines (SVMs), a hybrid demand forecasting model was established to mitigate the risk of overfitting in deep learning when forecasting small-sample time series. The empirical results show that the proposed LLM-BERTopic-VMD-SVM framework exhibits excellent performance, with the goodness-of-fit (R2) on various demand themes ranging from 0.93 to 0.96. This study proposes an effective analytical framework for identifying and forecasting resident demand. It provides a decision-support tool for city managers to achieve proactive and fine-grained governance, thereby offering a viable empirical pathway to promote the transformation of smart cities from technology-centric to human-centric. Full article

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping social, political, economic, and cultural life, yet its developmental value in the Global South remains contingent on governance, participation, and design choices. This study develops and validates a data-driven framework that aligns Artificial Intelligence with inclusive development across four interdependent dimensions like access, agency, accountability, and adaptation using a mixed-method, sequential explanatory design that integrates large-sample surveys, qualitative interviews and observations, and participatory workshops across six urban, peri-urban, and rural sites (total $n=1920$). Measurement development followed best practices in item generation, content validity, cognitive interviewing, piloting, and psychometric evaluation; exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure with satisfactory reliability and convergent discriminant validity. Structural equation modeling indicated that access and adaptation are the strongest predictors of service reach and time efficiency, whereas agency and accountability are most closely associated with grievance resolution and reductions in reported harms; these relations were strong across subgroups and alternative specifications. Qualitative integration clarified mechanisms that map onto the quantitative signals, including infrastructural precarity that constrains reach, contestability gaps that limit remedy, and locally responsive design features that reduce transaction costs. The framework translates normative commitments into measurable levers for policy and practice: investments that prioritize access and adaptation expand reach and efficiency, while strengthening agency and accountability enhances remedy and safety. Embedding the four dimensions into diagnostics, procurement, audit, and performance management offers a practical pathway to make Artificial Intelligence inclusive by default in diverse low-resource settings. Full article

Since the onset of gas extraction in Groningen province, the Netherlands, more than 1700 earthquakes have taken place. This has resulted in damage to properties and safety issues for almost 28,000 buildings. As a result, an extensive reinforcement and damage repair operation started, due to which, many residents were temporarily relocated. Although the need for compensation and restoration was recognized from 2012, recent years are characterized by unclear and shifting responsibilities, bureaucratic complexities, and evolving compensation standards, leading to disparity and a further escalation of social impacts. This paper examines developments in the case from 2015 onwards, when the last overview article on this case was published. We observe that even after a decade of compensation efforts, many residents experience loss of trust in the government and endure chronic stress that impacts their well-being, family dynamics, and overall quality of life. We analyze the government-led mitigation and compensation system that in essence fails to address the grievances of local people. Even after broad recognition of the flawed system, the parliament did not fundamentally change it. In nine lessons, we underscore the global imperative for robust social impact assessments, ongoing social monitoring, and well-coordinated compensation frameworks. This is not only crucial to address socio-ecological distress, but also to build more accountable and sustainable institutional responses to future extraction endeavors. Full article

This study explores the interplay of climate vulnerability and social capital in two rural communities: Brajaballavpur, a high-climate-prone village in the Indian Sundarbans characterized by high ecological fragility, recurrent cyclones, and saline water intrusion affecting water access, livelihoods, and infrastructure; and Jemua, a low-climate-prone village in the land-locked district of Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal, India, with no extreme climate events. A total of 85 participants (44 in Brajaballavpur, 41 in Jemua) were selected through purposive sampling. Using a comparative qualitative research design grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, data were collected through household interviews, Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs), Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and analyzed manually using inductive thematic analysis. Findings reveal that bonding and bridging social capital were more prominent in Brajaballavpur, where dense horizontal ties supported collective action during extreme weather events. Conversely, linking social capital was more visible in Jemua, where participants more frequently accessed formal institutions such as the Gram Panchayat, local NGOs, and government functionaries that facilitated grievance redressal and information access, but these networks were concentrated among more politically connected individuals. The study concludes that climate vulnerability shapes the type, strength, and strategic use of social capital in village communities. While bonding and bridging ties are crucial in high-risk contexts, linking capital plays a critical role in enabling long-term social structures in lower-risk settings. The study contributes to both academic literature and policy design by offering a relational and place-based understanding of climate vulnerability and social capital. Full article

This study compares complaints in Korean and Chinese, focusing on how they are expressed explicitly or implicitly. Complaints are potentially face-threatening, yet they frequently appear in conversations among native Korean and Chinese speakers who are characterized as upholding Neo-Confucian values and emphasizing social harmony. Although some contrastive studies have examined complaints across languages, none have specifically investigated the explicit and implicit strategies employed in Korean and Chinese complaint discourse. Given the growing intercultural contact between Korean and Chinese speakers, this gap calls for closer attention. To address this, the present study explores how native Korean and Chinese speakers articulate complaints in the Korean and Chinese versions of the travel reality show Sisters Over Flowers. Sixteen episodes were analyzed using interactional sociolinguistic methods, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The analysis uncovered both explicit and implicit strategies (e.g., expressions of annoyance or disapproval, overt grievances, questions, advice, teasing, and hints). Notably, the Korean participants produced significantly fewer complaints than their Chinese counterparts. These findings offer theoretical and practical insights. Theoretically, the results challenge overly broad notions of East–West pragmatic distinctions by demonstrating meaningful variation within East Asian cultures. Practically, a better understanding of explicit and implicit complaint strategies in Korean and Chinese can enhance intercultural communication, promote culturally sensitive responses, and bridge misunderstandings in increasingly globalized settings. Full article

This study explores the role of religion as a state-promoted tool for political assimilation in Pakistan’s border provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan. The study is based on five phases of fieldwork (2016–2024) combined with a thematic literature review. The research explores how religious strategies were deployed to forge a unified national identity in these regions. The findings reveal significant disparities in the effectiveness of these strategies. In KP, historical factors, cultural alignment, and geopolitical influences—particularly the Afghan conflict—largely facilitated the integration of Pashtun identity into Pakistan’s broader Islamic-national framework. Tools such as madrassa networks, education reforms, religious slogans, and state-backed Islamist parties effectively promoted religious nationalism. In contrast, religious assimilation efforts in Balochistan largely failed due to entrenched ethnic nationalism, economic exclusion, and political marginalization. Attempts to expand madrassas, delegitimize nationalist leaders as “anti-Islamic,” and support religious movements have been met with resistance, deepening distrust between the Baloch population and the state. The study found that religion alone cannot sustain national cohesion, particularly in regions with longstanding grievances and systemic inequalities. This research emphasizes the limitations of top-down, coercive assimilationist policies and underscores the necessity for more inclusive approaches, such as addressing economic disparities, recognizing regional identities, and promoting political participation as essential components for building a sustainable and unified nation. The study provides critical insights for policymakers, advocating for a shift from religious assimilation to strategies that prioritize justice, equity, and cultural accommodation, particularly in KPK and Balochistan. Full article

Community Forest Management (CFM) and REDD+ projects have emerged as key strategies for promoting environmental conservation and livelihood improvement. This review explores the effectiveness of incorporating free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), safeguard principles, grievance redress mechanisms, and benefit-sharing mechanisms into CFM and REDD+ in Cambodia, with a focus on enhancing communities’ livelihoods and climate change adaptation. This paper synthesizes findings from recent literature on CFM and REDD+ in Cambodia and internationally, analyzing key case studies, policy frameworks, and community engagement strategies. Findings suggest that while REDD+ projects offer potential economic and ecological benefits, challenges related to land tenure, equity in benefit-sharing, and community participation remain. This review highlights the need for stronger community engagement, a robust conflict management structure, clear land tenure policies, equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms, and more climate change adaptation activities to ensure the success of CFM and REDD+ projects in Cambodia and the Global South. Full article

“Moral shocks” are unexpected events or pieces of information that so deeply challenge one’s basic values and sense of the world that they profoundly reorient a person’s understanding of life and even self. Yet those who experience significant moral shocks rarely participate in related activism and instead experience grief as highly privatized and apolitical, a reality that serves the status quo and most powerful. This article considers how religious resources can help metabolize private grief into public lament and catalyze political grievance. Analyzing the rise of gun control activism after an elementary school mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, I argue religious resources help metabolize moral shocks into social change in five significant ways: (1) cultivating practiced, purposeful pathos, (2) offering collective lament, (3) building networked resiliency materially and theologically, (4) risking new alliances of accompaniment, and (5) storying hope. This case analysis contributes to a broader claim for political theology: Christianity can be understood as a movement based on a moral shock. This framing then animates practices of care to accompany those in moral distress and help disciple grief into a movement of faith that resists death-dealing political and social policy. Full article

The Chilean feminist movements challenged the state and educational authorities regarding recurring instances of gender-based violence that were perpetuated and silenced. Reports of harassment and sexual abuse led to a broader critique about the ways in which education plays a part in the establishment of a model that sustains gender gaps. University authorities responded with institutional policies, establishing protocols and formal spaces to address these issues. However, these measures have revealed new problems. Given that the institutional response to the feminist uprising illuminated a range of nuances, obstacles, and new tensions related to issues of punishment, reparation, and justice, we identify four critical points of these political dissonances that emerged in Chilean universities following this cycle of protests: 1. problems in the definition and naming of violence and experiences of grievance; 2. public exposure of grievances, including “funas” (public shaming) and punitive practices; 3. disputes over the meaning of the slogan “non-sexist education”; 4. challenges in integrating the feminist complaint within the university community. Based on the analysis of slogans, key protest moments, and a comprehensive literature review, we argue that these tensions may hinder feminism’s transformative potential while simultaneously enabling a valuable internal critique. Full article

This study analyses the ethnic cleansing of the Amhara people, which began during the late TPLF-led EPRDF regime and has continued under Abiy Ahmed’s administration. Despite the severity of these attacks, the Amhara’s plight has been largely ignored. Utilizing primary data from a survey of 183 Ethiopians and secondary data from various sources, the research takes a mixed-methods approach to explore factors contributing to these ethnic-based identity attacks. Findings indicate rising concerns about security, historical grievances, and regional inequalities, highlighting the urgent need for dialogue and inclusive policies to restore national unity and social cohesion. The findings also signify a decline in national unity, with ethnic identity becoming increasingly pronounced amid growing distrust of the central government. Full article