Book review: Towards a new research era: a global comparison of research distortions by Marek Hrubec and Emil Višňovský (eds)

Towards a New Research Era: A Global Comparison of Research Distortions by Hrubec Marek and Višňovský Emil (eds), Leiden; Boston, MA: Brill, 2023, 256 pp, $156.00. ISBN: 978900454493

Five actions for organisations to keep up with fast change in the workplace

Rapid technological advancements, changing demographics, and a shift in employee expectations have transformed the work landscape. Nikita and Jasmine Virhia analysed the literature and came up with five recommendations for employers to deal with this fast-paced environment

Bourdieuan perspectives on social power production: understanding the EU and member states' harmonised responses to Russia's 2022 incursion into Ukraine

This paper contributes to the debate on science and practices as basic features in foreign affairs. It investigates the potential of the framework that builds on Bourdieu’s social interpretations of the ‘international’ as a field characterised by ‘power struggles’, and of ‘practices’ as ‘cultural strategies’ in the international arena; it also draws on the conceptualisation of ‘agency’ as a ‘social power production’. It argues that science and practice hang together, and act as a player in the field of external affairs. It applies this framework to the illustrative example of the European Union (EU) and member states’ response to the Russia’s 2022 incursion into Ukraine, that demonstrated harmonised positions. It explores how social science and politics, combined, help to connect to the ‘symbolic power struggles’ that lead to ‘social power production’, as an agency motivating the EU and member states to adopt a common front. The empirical analysis employs the notions of Ethos; Foreign Policy Identity; Power, Trust and Uncertainty; and the Symbolic Struggle, to uncover the crucial trend of social science and practice playing a role in foreign policy. The conclusion concedes criticism from other models; however, despite the lack of extensive use of this framework, it hints at its potential usage within diverse case studies. The analysis is based on the author’s reflections on data drawn from primary and secondary sources as well as observations of foreign affairs practices. By capturing the symbolic power struggles that the research of the rationalist (neo-realism), soft-constructivist, and radical constructivist camps omitted to represent, this article helps to highlight the importance of the scientific agents revealing influences on foreign policy

Fixing gender: the paradoxical politics of training peacekeepers

Fixing Gender is a book about the epistemic life of the term ‘gender’ and the political work that this lively concept does. In recent years, gender training has become the go-to solution for any number of institutional issues. Among others, it has become a requirement for soldiers and police officers deploying overseas as peacekeepers. Through such training, ‘gender’—a term with critical feminist lineage—is taken up by martial institutions shaped by hegemonic masculinity. This conceptual travel poses important questions for feminist theorizing and political advocacy: What epistemic and political work does ‘gender’ come to do in these spaces? Fixing Gender sets out to explore what meaning the term is imbued with in this practice and, consequently, what political work gender training does. Drawing on extensive textual analysis of training materials and participant observation across varied geographic regions, this book follows the concept into institutions of state power, investigating how gender is framed as an analytical category and operational problem. It explores how knowledge about gender is produced in gender training settings, and what dynamics of translation, negotiation, and resistance are involved. This inquiry sheds new insight into the political potential and dangers associated with travelling concepts. Drawing on queer and postcolonial feminist thought, Fixing Gender argues for attending to contradiction and complexity in endeavours such as gender training, highlighting the urgent need to develop feminist conceptual vocabulary to contend with paradoxical politics

Public perceptions on net zero energy houses in Japan

For Japan, which has not operated nearly all of its nuclear power plants since 2011 and is dependent on thermal power generation, the introduction of renewable energy into homes is extremely important for the future formation of a sustainable society. However, the introduction of net zero energy house (ZEH) in detached houses, which account for 55% of all dwellings in Japan, has not progressed. To promote the introduction of ZEH, this study clarified the awareness of owners of detached houses regarding ZEH. We analyzed factors that influence such perception of solar photovoltaics (PV) technology using a 1000-sample online survey questionnaire. The survey was conducted in late January 2020 and included questions examining the public perception of solar installation and factors that were found to be important in previous research. We found that Japanese respondents who live in detached houses generally lack an understanding of renewables and that the level of interest in installing solar PV for the ZEH is low. We also found that awareness of renewables, such as knowing new energy policy and searching information on solar PV, is the critical factor of installing renewables. At the same time, most socio-demographic and neighborhood variables seem not to influence installing solar PV or other technologies for ZEH. This research will contribute to the Japanese government’s goal of strengthening education on renewable energy to promote ZEH

Book review: Good governance in Nigeria: rethinking accountability and transparency in the twenty-first century

In Good Governance in Nigeria: Rethinking Accountability and Transparency in the Twenty-First Century, Portia Roelofs critiques conventional Western ideas of “good governance” imposed in Africa, and specifically Nigeria, through fieldwork and historical analysis. Stephanie Wanga finds the book a grounded and nuanced argument for alternative, locally shaped and socially embedded models of governance

The right to fair pay and two paradigms of prison work

Is the low level of wages paid to prisoners for their work morally wrong and contrary to the human right to fair pay? This article contrasts two paradigms of prison work, one in which it is an ordinary market transaction to which normal employment rights should apply, with the rival and dominant paradigm that prisoners do not have contracts for the performance of work and sums paid to them are not pay or remuneration but rather a small incentive to perform work in a diligent way. The article also considers what would be required for prisoners’ pay to comply with the human right to fair pay, which has been viewed in three different ways – the right to be a member of a trade union for the purpose of collective bargaining, the right to a living wage that enables a life of dignity, and the right to equal pay with others who perform similar work

Book review: Victimhood, memory and consumerism. Profiting from Pablo by Katja Franko and David R. Goyes

Based on: Franko Katja and Goyes David R., Victimhood, Memory and Consumerism. Profiting from Pablo, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2023, 256 pp. (including index). ISBN: 9780192874115, £24.99(hardback

The greenest of green: preferences for homegrown renewables in Ireland

Little is known about consumer preferences for homegrown renewable electricity, i.e., renewables sourced from a consumer's region or nation. Existing literature on other products indicates that people often prefer locally produced goods. Other work, however, highlights the Not-in-my-back-yard sentiments that can arise in response to proposed local electricity infrastructure developments. In this paper, we first examine whether Irish consumers prefer renewable electricity contracts that source electricity from within Ireland and their province, compared to elsewhere in the European Economic Area, using a discrete choice experiment. Results from a survey of 1197 Irish adults indicate positive preferences for homegrown renewable electricity, both that generated within Ireland and to a greater extent in their province. We additionally find that homegrown green electricity is particularly attractive to people with strong place identity and green consumer values. Thematic text analysis identifies a range of different motivations behind these positive preferences, including supporting jobs and the Irish economy, energy security, and helping the environment. Overall, the findings indicate a kind of ‘positive parochialism’ where many people value pro-environmental electricity options that are homegrown