Participation As Legitimation: The Rise Of Participatory Policy Norms In The ICC And UN Peacekeeping

International organizations (IO s) have increasingly deepened local public engagement, reflecting a broader shift toward inclusion and responsiveness in global governance. While scholars have examined this trend, its emergence as a distinct normative development warrants further investigation. This article analyzes two cases of this phenomenon—the International Criminal Court’s outreach and community engagement in UN peacekeeping—conceptualizing both as participatory policy norms: social expectations that IO s engage directly with those most affected by their mandates. We argue that these norms represent an underexplored mode of IO legitimation. Tracing how they are codified in policy, operationalized in practice, and justified through normative and strategic logics, we show how participation has become central to cultivating, reaffirming, and defending IO legitimacy in an increasingly contested global environment. At the same time, we highlight the tensions, constraints, and risks of symbolic performance that complicate their role as a legitimation strategy

“Your Blackness Is Your Own Thing”: Examining Peer-Based Campus Racial-Ethnic Socialization Within Black Spaces

Studies in higher education have shown cultural student groups to be critical spaces for college students’ ongoing learning and development. Guided by research on Black spaces, this qualitative case study examined campus racial socialization, or the ways information about membership in the Black race is transmitted in educational settings, occurs within Black student groups at a small liberal arts college. We also foreground the ethnic diversity in the Black student body on the focal college campus in order to examine differences in socialization across groups. In this manuscript, we use interviews with 13 Black American, African, and Caribbean students at a small liberal arts campus, analyzed the student groups’ event flyers, and conducted fieldnotes in the campus’ Black cultural center. Our findings indicate that within these groups, Black students transmitted messages about their cultures as well as gained an awareness about pressing critical issues affecting Black people. Through this study, we contribute to the research on racial socialization occurring on college campuses by a close examination of the diversity of approaches Black students take to engage with their own and others’ Black cultures

Russia’s Cultural Thermometer: Imperial Balls at the Turn of the 20th Century

This work presents a novel perspective of Russian galas and their role in constructing an authentically Russian imperial culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this time, imperial balls functioned as both displays of soft power and represented a testing ground for the re-introduction of “authentic” Russian culture. After the modernizing wave of the Petrine revolution and long nineteenth-century intellectual debates between Westernizers and Slavophiles, Russia was deeply entrenched in Euro-centric dress, culture, and etiquette. This work proposes that turn-of-the-20th-century balls represented a reconfiguring of “Russianness” and displayed the aristocracy\u27s internalized struggles for national identity. These articulations of Russian identity and culture were not only for domestic consumption but also for foreign audiences. By examining ball descriptions from foreign ball attendees, such as Théophile Gaultier, Maria Georgievna (Grand Duchess of Russia at the time), and Alexander Mikhailovich (Grand Duke to Nicholas II), “Russia’s Cultural Thermometer: Imperial Balls at the Turn of the 20th Century” contributes a fresh perspective on displays of aristocratic self-identification during the late Tsarist period

Interest, Self-Efficacy, And Belonging In Classroom Learning

Students’ interest, self-efficacy, and belonging are considered essential for classroom learning, as each has been shown to promote sustained engagement and school achievement. However, our review of the literature suggested that research on interest, self-efficacy, and belonging is largely siloed. To address practitioner questions about supporting classroom learning by working with the three variables, we added a mixed-method pilot study to the review process. Pilot participants were Black, middle-school-age youth living in a low-income community, who were enrolled in a five-week, inquiry-informed science workshop facilitated by a Black professor. Findings showed that during learning, interest, self-efficacy, and belonging were increasingly coordinated over time. These results corroborated research showing the reciprocity of interest and self-efficacy in promoting student learning and suggested that belonging facilitates this support. The literature review and suggested insights from the pilot findings are discussed as providing initial guidance for both classroom practice and subsequent study

Election Reflections—And What Comes Next

A curated collection of essays tracking the pulse of American democracy as the second Trump Administration comes into power, this special section considers the campaigns that were waged and previews the battles yet to come