Nepal's Status‐Seeking Endeavors: Between Normative Convergence and Geopolitical Interests

Due to limited material and geopolitical factors, the agency of small states is limited in international politics. As such, these states may seek to mitigate such weaknesses through status-seeking, adopting peculiar foreign policy approaches or international commitments to signal to more powerful actors about specific political or normative affinities. In this article, the conceptual framework of social identity theory, specifically social mobility, is used to assess Nepal's foreign policy choices. It is argued that Nepal pursues the identity management strategy of social mobility in the form of normative conformance with more powerful actors to reinforce its status in the international community but not necessarily to rise up in the hierarchy of states. Social mobility through normative conformance not only allows Nepal to elevate its status with higher-status groups like the EU, the UN, and US (which are the country's primary development partners), but it also reinforces Nepal's interest in maintaining (and if possible, expanding) its agency as a sovereign state which is constrained due to its geopolitical location in between much larger neighbors, India and China. Nepal's normative convergence efforts are broadly categorized into two specific types of commitments: (a) multilateralism and (b) normative congruence with development partners. Both of these normative conformance approaches seek to emulate the values and practices of the higher-status group - the US, the UN, and the EU

Diskriminierung und Teilhabe im Hinblick auf Migrationserfahrungen von hochaltrigen Menschen: Ergebnisse der D80+-Studie

Ziel der Expertise ist es, Teilhabechancen und Hinweise auf Diskriminierung von Eingewanderten im Vergleich zu in Deutschland geborenen Hochaltrigen in den Bereichen Bildung und Einkommen, Wohnen sowie Wertschätzung und Anerkennung zu analysieren. Um den Lebensverläufen heutiger Hochaltriger gerecht zu werden, wird - statt nach Migrationshintergrund - nach Migrationserfahrung bis und ab 1950 sowie nach unterschiedlichen Herkunftsregionen differenziert. Datengrundlage ist die Studie "Hohes Alter in Deutschland (D80+)" mit 10.578 hochaltrigen Teilnehmenden unter Einschluss häufig ausgeschlossener Gruppen wie im Heim Lebende oder Personen, die aufgrund gesundheitlicher Einschränkungen an einer Befragung nur mittels Stellvertreter*in teilnehmen können. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass 22 Prozent der Teilnehmenden nicht auf dem Gebiet des heutigen Deutschlands geboren wurden. Für die Teilhabechancen zeigen sich eine geringere formale Bildung für Personen mit Migrationserfahrung vor und ab 1950, und für letztere auch ein geringeres Einkommen und höheres Armutsrisiko. Eine Betrachtung nach Herkunftsregionen zeigt ein sehr differenziertes Bild der Einkommensverteilung. Ab 1950 zugewanderte Hochaltrige wohnen häufiger zur Miete, in Mehrfamilienhäusern und Städten. Sie haben seltener Vertrauen in die Nachbarschaft und berichten häufiger, dass die Corona-Pandemie dieses Vertrauen negativ beeinflusst hat. Personen mit Migrationserfahrung fühlen sich seltener für ihre Lebensleistung wertgeschätzt. Angesichts der Vielfalt der Migrationserfahrungen erweist sich der Zusammenhang mit Teilhabechancen insgesamt als sehr heterogen

A Co-Generated Analysis of Thai Homestays: Overcoming SERVQUAL Deficiencies and Sustainability Barriers

Post-COVID-19, international travelers have brand assurance expectations that often surpass the benchmark set by the Thai Homestay Standard, leaving some operators struggling to position with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thai homestays face significant challenges due to the lack of clear transitional pathways toward sustainability and alignment with international (ASEAN) standards for 'service quality' (SERVQUAL). This study critically examines these SERVQUAL deficiencies and analyzes Thai homestays in comparison with the ASEAN Homestay Standard, using frameworks derived from SERVQUAL and the SDGs. It identifies barriers within the standards and proposes actionable tools to bridge these gaps, enabling homestays to support sustainability objectives better. Adopting a reflective and co-creative methodological approach, the research engaged a rural community in Northeastern Thailand to co-generate insights towards homestay quality. Findings show community-identified barriers across three core SERVQUAL dimensions: Tangibles, Responsiveness, and Assurance. However, external observations on SERVQUAL of homestays identified all five dimensions, including Reliability and Empathy, albeit against different items. The internal/external gaze juxtaposition suggests a precarious role of sustainability within Thai ethnic homestays. The study's novelty lies in its longitudinal fieldwork and applying a mutual gaze to embed SERVQUAL principles into homestay practices via a refined standards matrix. Findings highlight the pressing need for revisions to the Thai Homestay Standard, equipping hosts to transition effectively toward internationalization while achieving higher service quality and sustainability

Oblique Agency: Mapping the Globalised Workflows of Television Dubbing and Their Impact on Practitioners

This article offers a comprehensive analysis of how increasingly globalised infrastructures, marked by industry expansion, consolidation, and the impact of streamers, affect the workflows and practices within local dubbing industries. Informed by extensive, original interviews with managerial and creative dubbing practitioners, and industry fieldwork observations since 2017, the article is located within a post-Bourdieuian framework, exploring what significant change for the field and its habitus has meant for agency. Having identified a persistent lack of engagement with the dubbing of television in existing scholarship across several disciplines, the article considers how dubbing practitioners negotiate a wider industrial push towards more streamlining, standardisation, and more attendance to issues concerning equity, diversity, and inclusion. Here, the article offers the notion of oblique agency, to capture how creative agency is moved away from local creative practitioners, through more managerial oversight, prescriptive guidance and tools, and feedback cultures shaped by corporate agendas. Simultaneously, some agency is left to these practitioners, most acutely felt in the case of dubbing contemporary television (marked by narrative and tonal complexity), due to a lack of investment and recognition of dubbing as inherently creative. The article takes care to explore the complexities of these dynamics, especially a pronounced heterogeneity of views, including simultaneous criticism and enjoyment by creative practitioners, as well as a considerable gap between their perspectives and those of managerial practitioners. In this way, the article seeks to make a much-needed contribution to nuanced engagement with dubbing infrastructures and working practices

Exploring Media Literacy Formation at the Intersection of Family, School, and Peers

Today, media literacy and digital skills are essential for personal communication and social interaction. Children and adolescents need these skills to act autonomously in highly digitised social contexts. These skills are acquired in different social spaces, most frequently and primarily at home, followed by peer groups, school, and extracurricular activities. The present study aims to conceptually situate media literacy within a broader network of social power relations. It is therefore grounded in an academic theoretical framework that constructs media literacy as a form of digital cultural capital. As such, media literacy also contains the principles of media preferences and choices that condition the media choices of young people. This draws our attention to the social contexts in which media literacy and digital skills of children and teenagers are formed: within the family, school, and peers. With a selective thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with 67 primary and secondary school students (12-19 years), the empirical research is focused on different contextual incentives and regulations related to the formation of students' media literacy, primarily in relation to digital media. First, we examine parenting practices that frame home access to media and media practices within families. Then, we explore the characteristics of formal media education within schools, which seems limited to teaching with/through media. Finally, we identify peer networks as important promoters of both digital capital and elements of advanced media practices and skills, compared to the media literacy encouraged within families and schools

Politische Theorie des Antiziganismus: Genese und Kritik eines modernen Herrschaftsverhältnisses

Antiziganismus ist bis heute weit verbreitet und betrifft Sinti*ze und Rom*nja als Angehörige der größten Minderheit Europas in besonderem Maße. Dennoch wird das Thema in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft gleichermaßen verdrängt. Im Anschluss an die kritische Gesellschaftstheorie verbindet Laura Soréna Tittel Überlegungen zur Funktion der "Zigeuner"-Figur in der politischen Theorie von Kant, Marx und Adorno mit umfangreichem Quellenmaterial, das von frühneuzeitlichen Gesetzestexten bis zu polizeilich eingesetzten Bildern reicht. Sie zeigt die Genese des modernen Antiziganismus in der Aufklärung, im Kapitalismus und in der Staatenbildung auf und ermöglicht so kritische Perspektiven auf ein gesellschaftliches Herrschaftsverhältnis

Multimorbidity clusters and their contribution to well-being among the oldest old: Results based on a nationally representative sample in Germany

Our aim was to identify multimorbidity clusters and, in particular, to examine their contribution to well-being outcomes among the oldest old in Germany. Methods: Data were taken from the large nationally representative D80+ study including community-dwelling and institutionalized individuals aged 80 years and over residing in Germany (n=8,773). The mean age was 85.6 years (SD: 4.1). Based on 21 chronic conditions, latent class analysis was carried out to explore multimorbidity (≥2 chronic conditions) clusters. Widely used tools were applied to quantify well-being outcomes. Results Approximately nine out of ten people aged 80 and over living in Germany were multimorbid. Four multimorbidity clusters were identified: relatively healthy class (30.2%), musculoskeletal class (44.8%), mental illness class (8.6%), and high morbidity class (16.4%). Being part of the mental disorders cluster was consistently linked to reduced well-being (in terms of low life satisfaction, high loneliness and lower odds of meaning in life), followed by membership in the high morbidity cluster. Conclusions Four multimorbidity clusters were detected among the oldest old in Germany. Particularly belonging to the mental disorders cluster is consistently associated with low well-being, followed by belonging to the high morbidity cluster. This stresses the need for efforts to target such vulnerable groups, pending future longitudinal research

Von Klimawandel und Klassenfrage: Rezension zu "Der neue sozial-ökologische Klassenkonflikt: Mentalitäts- und Interessengegensätze im Streit um Transformation" von Dennis Eversberg, Martin Fritz, Linda von Faber und Matthias Schmelzer

Dennis Eversberg, Martin Fritz, Linda von Faber, Matthias Schmelzer: Der neue sozial-ökologische Klassenkonflikt: Mentalitäts- und Interessengegensätze im Streit um Transformation. Frankfurt am Main u.a.: Campus Verlag 2024. 978-3-593-51995-

Unveiling Hate Speech Dynamics: An Examination of Discourse Targeting the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET)

This article examines hate speech directed at AEMET, the Spanish meteorological state agency, on the social media platform X. We analysed nearly half a million messages posted between 31 December 2021 and 19 April 2023, using hate speech detection algorithms, text mining techniques, and qualitative analysis to identify patterns and themes in the discourse. Our research reveals a troubling reality, with around 25% of the messages collected displaying some degree of hostility towards AEMET, its staff, and its scientific work. A considerable amount of hate speech was expressed through derogatory comments and insults aimed at meteorologists, which is indicative of a wider trend of anti‐intellectualism and scepticism of scientific expertise. Furthermore, the spread of conspiracy theories, particularly those related to geoengineering and chemtrails, highlights the spread of misinformation within online communities. This study emphasises the importance of acknowledging and addressing the spread of hate speech in meteorology and scientific communication. By emphasising the negative effects of such language on public perception and trust in scientific institutions, this article advocates for collaborative efforts to promote a culture of informed dialogue and evidence‐based discourse. The results highlight the importance of combating hate speech and misinformation to protect the integrity and credibility of scientific institutions such as AEMET

Local Voices, Global Goals: Participatory Planning for Localizing the UN SDGs in UNESCO Heritage Site Management

The research detailed here has explored the role of local actors in integrating SDGs into World Heritage Site Management Plans, within a polycentric governance framework. It highlights how SDGs can be localized in the context of World Heritage cities management and urban development. The Medieval Town of Toruń, Poland, serves as a case study here. Empirically, this research was based on three types of data collection, entailing: qualitative analysis of key documents facilitating the pursuit of the SDGs in urban planning; semi-structured expert interviews with representatives of the city administration, members of the Revitalization Committee, members of local NGOs, urban activists, as well as individuals officially designated as experts in city administration documents for projects related to World Heritage; participant observations of Revitalization Committee meetings. In the context of Toruń, the Revitalization Committee emerges as a key actor contributing substantially to the formulation of the World Heritage Site Management Plan and the integration of SDGs, despite not being initially designated for these functions. Toruń's proactive approach, which expands periodic reporting and utilizes the Committee to enhance social participation in decision-making, seeks to ensure the integration of sustainable development principles into the urban planning framework, optimizing financial and human resources without the need to create new structures. The committee's influence is evident in the integration of elements from the Revitalization Plan into the World Heritage Site Management Plan, underscoring a strong connection between participatory planning and the pursuit of SDGs in the context of World Heritage site management