scholarly journals BODHISATTVA COMES OUT OF CLOSET: CITY, SURVEILLANCE, AND DOING RELIGION

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-216
Author(s):  
Weishan Huang
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Development ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Grassroots Education ◽  
The Impact

The author is interested in looking at religious groups as a location for discussion and critique in a censorial society in China. This paper will take the approach of the “ecological model” in field research in a highly censorial and increasingly pluralistic city, Shanghai. Shanghai has experienced large scale social changes since the late 1980s. It is critical to understand how socio-structural challenges, such as immigration, affect faith-based groups within the frame of urban aspirations. In this paper, the adaptation of faith-based groups to their political environments will be the primarily focus. Due to governmental restriction in province-level municipalities, religious practices are invisible in public spaces but are revitalizing in private spaces in major Chinese cities. The roles urban religious institutions play in adapting to city regulations are especially pressing for faith groups. My research discovered, first, under the political surveillance in city, religious groups are not passively enduring the impact of political control, but also actively engaging in organizational development. Secondly, religious groups can be considered a location which creates a social space for grassroots education and, therefore, develops a more creative and fluid “popular politics” in society, which offers a critique to a highly regulated society

scholarly journals Analysis of migration processes in the EU and the theory of multiculturalism: current state and prospects

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
В. О. Пашков ◽  
В. І. Правдін
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Current State ◽  
Cultural Compatibility ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The article deals with the problem of the migration crisis that has hit the EU. Since 2015, there has been a sharp increase in the number of refugees from the region, to which European countries were not ready. By the end of 2019, Europe has already exhausted its economic capacity to receive and accommodate refugees, but their flow is continuing. Over the last 5 years, more than 4 million refugees from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia have come to Europe. In 2015, the flow of migrants was over 1.5 million people, in 2016 - 900 000, in 2017 - 650 000, in 2018 - 600 000, in 2019 - almost 550 000.The main causes of large-scale movement of migrants to Europe have been identified. Among them are wars and conflicts that destabilize the situation in their native countries; demographic outbreak in Africa and the Middle East, deteriorating funding for refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, exacerbation of the 2018-2019 Syrian crisis; the availability of high social guarantees and diaspora relatives in many EU countries.The political, social, cultural consequences of the migration crisis for individual countries and the EU are analyzed. The increasing flow of refugees has exacerbated in European societies the problems of terrorism, the increase in crime rates, the poor cultural compatibility of the local population with refugees, the increased right-wing sentiment and the high social costs of migrant adaptation.The importance of the ideology of multiculturalism for the current migration crisis in the EU is substantiated. The phenomenon of multiculturalism is compared with the phenomena of globalization and shows the impact on the situation in society, which lead to conflict. Multiculturalism has recently been perceived as a means that can mitigate the negative (primarily for traditional cultures, ethnic and religious groups) consequences of globalization, but narrowing the philosophical view of the phenomenon of multiculturalism to the institutional level, modern representatives of the humanities and practices in Europe (political scientists, sociologists, politicians) faced with the fact that the interaction of cultures has not been adequately reflected in theory and held in practice.

On Intimate Choices and Troubles in Rural South China

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1298-1326 ◽  
Author(s):  
GONÇALO SANTOS
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Policy Science ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Local Practices ◽  
Birth Planning ◽  
External Forces ◽  
State Interventions ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article explores how marriage practices and intimate relations are being refashioned in reform-era China in the context of increasingly entangled intersections between private negotiations and public dialogues in law, state policy, science, and the media. Based on long-term field research in impoverished rural areas, the article focuses on the intersections between intimate practices of the everyday and large-scale projects of social engineering aimed at turning ordinary ‘peasants’ into ‘modern civilized citizens’. The article draws particular attention to the important role played by the Birth Planning Policy in shaping local reproductive practices and intimate structures, but the approach developed here to make sense of the impact of globalized neo-Malthusian state interventions on local realities considers also the perspective and the agency of ordinary individuals and communities. Instead of assuming that changes in local practices follow primarily from the impact of external forces such as state policies and technologies of birth planning, the article suggests that local practices and global forces co-produce each other through ‘frictions’ of various kinds. This focus on the micro-macro intersections of what I call here the ‘techno-politics of intimacy’ joins recent efforts in the humanities and social sciences to move beyond conventional top-down approaches to global intimate transformations.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF DISCLAIMER DUE TO COVID-19 ON THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF OFFICIAL WORKERS

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Siti Zakiyatul Fikriyah ◽  
Khoirul Mumtahanah ◽  
Khasiatun Amaliyah
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Working From Home ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Social Affairs

The Covid-19 virus is one type of infectious disease or infectious disease that emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019. And began to spread in Indonesia in March 2021. The increasing number of positive cases and deaths due to Covid-19 has led the government to implement several policies, namely restrictions on Large-Scale Social Affairs (PSBB) and working from home. This policy has a very big impact on employers because they experience enormous losses so that company leaders carry out layoffs (layoffs) on a large scale or on a large scale. The impact of the termination of employment is felt directly by the workers concerned. And social changes began to occur in workers who were laid off (changes in religiosity), such as what happened in Dongos Village, Kedung District, Jepara Regency. This study aims to see the impact and influence factors of layoffs due to Covid-19 on the religious level of workers who were laid off and who were not laid off. The method used is a combined research approach (quantitative and qualitative), using a questionnaire and direct interviews. The results obtained indicate that layoffs due to Covid-19 affect the level of religiosity of laid-off workers. Moreover, there is a difference in the level of religiosity between workers who were laid off and those who were not. The factors that influence the impact of layoffs due to Covid-19 on the level of worker religiosity are 1) Ideological, 2) Ritualistic, 3) Expressive, and 4) Consequences

scholarly journals Development of Infrastructure and Changes in the Social Space of Kharkiv at the Turn of the 19th – 20th Centuries

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Philanthropic Organizations ◽  
Symbolic Coding ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

The article explored the impact of urban infrastructure on the social space of Kharkov in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Kharkiv municipality began to implement large-scale infrastructure projects that contributed to solving urgent sanitary-epidemiological and social problems from the 1870s. The first significant technological component of the infrastructure was water supply. Telephone communications, electric lighting, sewage, horse and electric trams started to function in Kharkiv at that time. Networks of medical, educational and cultural institutions were widely developed. The publication clarified the role of certain actors in the creation and maintenance of infrastructure elements. In particular, thanks to Kharkiv municipality declared the basics of collective safety, occupational health, social ecology and formed communicative relations of infrastructure institutions with consumers. Attention is also focused on the role of Kharkiv philanthropic organizations and expert groups, which contributed to the awareness of citizens of such an ethical principle as social responsibility. In the article considered changes in the material substrate of the social space of Kharkiv. It is noted that although the center of the city was the zone of “prestige”, however, the localization of the components of the city infrastructure gradually expanded, which became one of the important features of the modernization of the social space of the city. Networks of hospitals and educational institutions covered remote Kharkiv areas. Public transport and stationary trading establishments become part of the everyday practices of residents of the city's environs. It is concluded that the development of infrastructure not only changed the physical appearance of the city, but also transformed social practices and the symbolic coding of social space.

scholarly journals The Impact of Drug Trafficking on Informal Security Actors in Kenya

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Schuberth
Keyword(s):  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Drug Trade ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Drug Traffickers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Two Sides

The Kenyan state is currently under pressure from two sides: First, numerous non-state armed groups have taken over the provision of security in areas where the state is practically absent. Second, drug-trafficking organizations are gaining ground as the country is increasingly being used as a major transit hub for narcotics. This article investigates the relationship between drug trafficking and informal security provision in Kenya and draws analogies from comparable experiences in Latin America and West Africa. Field research in Kenya has demonstrated that profit-oriented, informal security actors in Mombasa work for drug lords, while their counterparts in Nairobi are more likely to be hired by politicians. Moreover, faith-based vigilante groups in both cities appear to be less susceptible to external manipulation by drug traffickers. The article concludes by considering the potential consequences of an expansion of the drug trade in Kenya.

scholarly journals Systems over Service: Changing Systems of Inequality through Congregational Political Engagement

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Sager
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Research ◽  
State Level ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Political Work ◽  
Congregation Members

The role of religious groups in changing inequality has usually been a bottom up approach. Whether it was serving meals to the needy or sheltering the homeless, the vast majority of religious groups have addressed problems of inequality, not by addressing the causes of hunger and homelessness, but rather by offering assistance to those already in need. Rarely have religious groups become engaged in explicitly political activities that challenge structures that create large scale inequality. In this article, I examine the first state level efforts by LA Voice, a congregation-based community group that has worked to ameliorate inequality through political organizing with churches in largely poor minority communities throughout Los Angeles. Drawing on extensive qualitative data from field research and interviews during their first campaign season in 2012, I examine how these religious groups organized around a controversial political issue—an important move away from their traditional community-based organizing—and how their understandings of faith informed this work. Specifically, LA Voice helped pass a state-level initiative that directly challenged systems of inequality; Proposition 30, which raised taxes on the wealthy to fund public education. This political work highlighted long known internal struggles between congregation members who fought these actions and those who recognized the need in their communities and enthusiastically took up this work. This article ends with a discussion of how these early efforts resulted in further engagement by other member congregations.

scholarly journals Identity threats and ideas of superiority as drivers of religious violence? Evidence from a survey experiment in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332110352
Author(s):  
Matthias Basedau ◽  
Simone Gobien ◽  
Lisa Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Religious Violence ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Weak Evidence ◽  
Identity Threats ◽  
The Impact

Religion has become increasingly contentious in recent years. Faith-based discrimination, hostility and violence seem to have increased worldwide. But how can faith lead to conflict? In this article, we test the impact of two important dimensions of religion that have been neglected in previous research: the belief in ‘one true religion’ and perceptions of threats by other religious groups. Putting these two potential drivers to the test, we conducted a representative survey experiment with 972 respondents in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Results show that one of the tested dimensions, perceptions of threats by others, increases the support to use violence to defend one’s own group. This is particularly the case for religiously intolerant respondents with characteristics such as pre-existing threat perceptions, unfavorable views on intermarriage, or belief in the superiority of their own faith. In contrast, we find relatively weak evidence that the prime of ‘one true religion’ increases the readiness to use violence. Our findings have important implications for policy: We conclude that appeals by leaders to threats by others and intolerance toward other faiths can contribute to more conflict. Political and religious leaders should refrain from capitalizing on such notions and should promote tolerance towards other faiths instead.

Impact of COVID-19 on Nuclear Medicine in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: An International Survey in April 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (04) ◽  
pp. 294-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutz S. Freudenberg ◽  
Ulf Dittmer ◽  
Ken Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Medicine ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Diagnostic Procedures ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Public Versus Private ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Introduction Preparations of health systems to accommodate large number of severely ill COVID-19 patients in March/April 2020 has a significant impact on nuclear medicine departments. Materials and Methods A web-based questionnaire was designed to differentiate the impact of the pandemic on inpatient and outpatient nuclear medicine operations and on public versus private health systems, respectively. Questions were addressing the following issues: impact on nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapy, use of recommendations, personal protective equipment, and organizational adaptations. The survey was available for 6 days and closed on April 20, 2020. Results 113 complete responses were recorded. Nearly all participants (97 %) report a decline of nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures. The mean reduction in the last three weeks for PET/CT, scintigraphies of bone, myocardium, lung thyroid, sentinel lymph-node are –14.4 %, –47.2 %, –47.5 %, –40.7 %, –58.4 %, and –25.2 % respectively. Furthermore, 76 % of the participants report a reduction in therapies especially for benign thyroid disease (-41.8 %) and radiosynoviorthesis (–53.8 %) while tumor therapies remained mainly stable. 48 % of the participants report a shortage of personal protective equipment. Conclusions Nuclear medicine services are notably reduced 3 weeks after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic reached Germany, Austria and Switzerland on a large scale. We must be aware that the current crisis will also have a significant economic impact on the healthcare system. As the survey cannot adapt to daily dynamic changes in priorities, it serves as a first snapshot requiring follow-up studies and comparisons with other countries and regions.

“Land fever” and “Bankruptcy”: Social Problems in Hanoi’s Urbanizing Peri-urban Communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 550-562
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Credit Market ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
Impact Of Urbanization ◽  
The Impact

Drawn upon field research in two peri-urban villages of Hanoi in 2014 and short re-visits recently, the research examines the widespread of gambling and other social issues in Hanoi’s urbanizing peri-urban communities which happened concurrently with the phenomenon of “land fever,” and at the time local villagers received compensation from land appropriation. The article aims to understand the impact of urbanization on these communities and the interface between urbanization and the increase of social problems. It argues that gambling, drug use, and other social problems have been existing in Vietnamese rural communities long before; however, when urbanization came, some people have higher chances to engage in these activities. Those are villagers who want to transform quickly into entrepreneurs or bosses by joining the “black credit” market and gambling. Together with middle-aged and old farmers who greatly relied on agricultural production and face difficulties in transforming their occupation, they formed the group of losers in the urbanization process. Received 6th January 2019; Revised 26th April 2019; Accepted 15th May 2019

Keynote

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne LIEDTKA
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Lens Design ◽  
Social Sector ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
The Impact

The value delivered by design thinking is almost always seen to be improvements in the creativity and usefulness of the solutions produced. This paper takes a broader view of the potential power of design thinking, highlighting its role as a social technology for enhancing the productivity of conversations for change across difference. Examined through this lens, design thinking can be observed to aid diverse sets of stakeholders’ abilities to work together to both produce higher order, more innovative solutions and to implement them more successfully. In this way, it acts as a facilitator of the processes of collectives, by enhancing their ability to learn, align and change together. This paper draws on both the author’s extensive field research on the use of design thinking in social sector organizations, as well as on the literature of complex social systems, to discuss implications for both practitioners and scholars interested in assessing the impact of design thinking on organizational performance.

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