Search results for: political capital

Authors: Bin Li

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In the era of the digital economy, digital transformation has gradually become a strategic choice for enterprise development, but there is a relative lack of systematic research from the perspective of enterprise growth. Based on the sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021, this paper constructs A digital transformation index system and an enterprise growth composite index to empirically test the impact of enterprise digital transformation on enterprise growth and its mechanism. The results show that digital transformation can significantly promote corporate growth. The mechanism analysis finds that reducing operating costs, optimizing human capital structure, promoting R&D output and improving digital innovation capability play an important intermediary role in the process of digital transformation promoting corporate growth. At the same time, the level of external digital infrastructure and the strength of organizational resilience play a positive moderating role in the process of corporate digital transformation promoting corporate growth. In addition, while further analyzing the heterogeneity of enterprises, this paper further deepens the analysis of the driving factors and digital technology support of digital transformation, as well as the three dimensions of enterprise growth, thus deepening the research depth of enterprise digital transformation.

Keywords: digital transformation, enterprise growth, digital technology, digital infrastructure, organization resilience, digital innovation

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Authors: Futoshi Kakuta, Takashi Ishida

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Sewage sludge is a biomass resource that can create a solid fuel and electricity. Utilizing sewage sludge as a renewable energy can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gasses. In Japan, 'The National Plan for the Promotion of Biomass Utilization' and 'The Priority Plan for Social Infrastructure Development' were approved at cabinet meetings in December 2010 and August 2012, respectively, to promote the energy utilization of sewage sludge. This study investigated costs and greenhouse gas emission in different sewage sludge treatments with technologies for energy from sewage sludge. Costs were estimated on capital costs and O&M costs including energy consumption of solid fuel plants and biogas power generation plants for sewage sludge. Results showed that cost of sludge digestion treatment with solid fuel technologies was 8% lower than landfill disposal. Greenhouse gas emission of sludge digestion treatment with solid fuel technologies was also 6,390t as CO2 smaller than landfill disposal. Biogas power generation reduced the electricity of a wastewater treatment plant by 30% and the cost by 5%.

Keywords: global warming countermeasure, energy technology, solid fuel production, biogas

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Authors: Eduardo Ruiz-Corzo, Luis Rodrigo Valencia Perez, Jorge Francisco Barragan Lopez

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The article shows the pressing conditions of marginalization prevailing in the Sierra Gorda, in the northern state of Queretaro, so it is essential to identify business options that generate a complementary source of income in a sustainable manner, in accordance with the fact that the area is a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. In this sense, the study identifies the enormous scenic richness of the area, the growing demand for leisure activities of the urban centers and the multifunctionality that adds, in a complementary way, the traditional activities that up to now have achieved the quality of life levels. From the application of the 43 interviews and 183 surveys, confirms the fact that the post-visit perception exceeds the expectations of the visitors emerges and affirms that the image that has been projected is attractive and timely. In order to understand how the current model of tourism promoted in the region is working, there is a need to evaluate it in a theoretical-methodological framework considering sustainable development assumptions. In order to determine the degree of contribution to business development, strengthening of social capital, and enjoyment and appreciation of cultural and natural heritage in the region.

Keywords: marginalization, rural tourism, multifunctionality, sustainability, revenue

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Authors: Chenhong Peng

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Beijing, the capital city of China, is running out of water. The water resource per capita in Beijing is only 106 cubic meter, accounts for 5% of the country’s average level and less than 2% of the world average level. The tension between water supply and demand is extremely serious. For one hand, the surface and ground water have been over-exploited during the last decades; for the other hand, water demand keep increasing as the result of population and economic growth. There is a massive gap between water supply and demand. This paper will focus on addressing the water shortage in Beijing city by increasing water use efficiency in domestic sector. First, we will emphasize on the changing structure of water supply and demand in Beijing under the economic development and restructure during the last decade. Second, by analyzing the water use efficiency in agriculture, industry and domestic sectors in Beijing, we identify that the key determinant for addressing the water crisis is to increase the water use efficiency in domestic sector. Third, this article will explore the two primary causes for the water use inefficiency in Beijing: The ineffective water pricing policy and the poor water education and communication policy. Finally, policy recommendation will offered to improve the water use efficiency in domestic sector by making and implementing an effective water pricing policy and people-engaged water education and communication policy.

Keywords: Beijing, water use efficiency, domestic sector, water pricing policy, water education policy

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Authors: Sarah K. Taylor, Miratun M. Saharuddin, Zabri A. Talib

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Cybercrime is on the rise, and yet many Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in Malaysia have no Digital Forensics Laboratory (DFL) to assist them in the attrition and analysis of digital evidence. From the estimated number of 30 LEAs in Malaysia, sadly, only eight of them owned a DFL. All of the DFLs are concentrated in the capital of Malaysia and none at the state level. LEAs are still depending on the national DFL (CyberSecurity Malaysia) even for simple and straightforward cases. A survey was conducted among LEAs in Malaysia owning a DFL to understand their history of establishing the DFL, the challenges that they faced and the significance of the DFL to their case investigation. The results showed that the while some LEAs faced no challenge in establishing a DFL, some of them took seven to 10 years to do so. The reason was due to the difficulty in convincing their management because of the high costs involved. The results also revealed that with the establishment of a DFL, LEAs were better able to get faster forensic result and to meet agency’s timeline expectation. It is also found that LEAs were also able to get more meaningful forensic results on cases that require niche expertise, compared to sending off cases to the national DFL. Other than that, cases are getting more complex, and hence, a continuous stream of budget for equipment and training is inevitable. The result derived from the study is hoped to be used by other LEAs in justifying to their management the benefits of establishing an in-house DFL.

Keywords: digital evidence, digital forensics, digital forensics laboratory, law enforcement agency

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Authors: Wang Hsiao-Wen

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This paper is based on the burning of the Old Summer Palace by the Anglo-French forces. The Old Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan, is an imperial garden located outside Beijing, but it was looted and burned down by the Anglo-French troops. Hundreds of guards died, and Emperor Xianfeng also fled from the back door to the Chengde Mountain Resort in a hurry. It is a very shameful piece of Chinese imperial history. At that time, it was well known that the capital was almost occupied. However, the detailed process of the whole incident and the subsequent accountability was regarded as a national shame, which was omitted in the historical records and rarely mentioned by scholars, especially under the rulings of Xianfeng and Tongzhi. Due to this, the researcher explored how the incident was documented in historical poetry and how the war was recalled and evaluated from different perspectives so that rich and diverse historical interpretations can be constructed. The issues explored and discussed in this paper are divided into two parts: (i) the historical writing of the Incident in Gengshen Year, which mainly focuses on the Historical Poetry on the Burning of the Old Summer Palace by the Anglo-French forces, and (ii) the different identities of poets and their perspectives of mourning, which leads to the homogeneity or heterogeneity of their interpretations.

Keywords: Anglo-French expedition to China, the Incident in Gengshen Year, burning of the Old Summer Palace, historical poetry

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Authors: Ankur Sachan

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The ability to make quick yet intelligent and value-added decisions to develop new fields has always been of great significance. In situations where the capital expenses and subsurface risk are high, carefully analyzing the inherent uncertainties in the reservoir and how they impact the predicted hydrocarbon accumulation and production becomes a daunting task. The problem is compounded in offshore environments, especially in the presence of heavy oils and disconnected sands where the margin for error is small. Uncertainty refers to the degree to which the data set may be in error or stray from the predicted values. To understand and quantify the uncertainties in reservoir model is important when estimating the reserves. Uncertainty parameters can be geophysical, geological, petrophysical etc. Identification of these parameters is necessary to carry out the uncertainty analysis. With so many uncertainties working at different scales, it becomes essential to have a consistent and efficient way of incorporating them into our analysis. Ranking the uncertainties based on their impact on reserves helps to prioritize/ guide future data gathering and uncertainty reduction efforts. Assigning probabilistic ranges to key uncertainties also enables the computation of probabilistic reserves. With this in mind, this paper, with the help the uncertainty and optimization process in petrel RE shows how the most influential uncertainties can be determined efficiently and how much impact so they have on the reservoir model thus helping in determining a cost effective and accurate model of the reservoir.

Keywords: uncertainty, reservoir model, parameters, optimization analysis

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Authors: Kishor P. Kadam

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Foreign direct investment policy (FDI) is defined as an investment involving a long term relationship and reflecting a long duration interest and control of a resident entity in the home country (foreign direct investor or parent firm) in the host country. India has been one of the most translucent and open-minded FDI regimes among the emerging and developing economies. There is clear cut mentioned about the sectoral caps for foreign investment. The policy problems that have been identified by time to time surveys as acting as additional hurdles for FDI are laws, regulatory systems and government monopolies that do not have contemporary relevance. Foreign investment policies in the post-reforms period have emphasized greater encouragement and mobilization of non-debt creating private inflows for plunging reliance on debt flows. This paper will focus on how foreign direct investment policy changed from 1990-91 up to now. A time series data of 25 years is used for analysing the policy changes. It is observed that India has more liberal policy. The growth in number of Greenfield investments in India has been more impressive than the number of M&A deals whereas equity capital for incorporated bodies FDI inflows has been increased continuously 2014-15. India has made major changes in FDI Policy, and it has positive impact on economic development.

Keywords: FDI, India, economic development, government

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Authors: Opeyemi Awau Adepoju

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The task of nation-building for Nigeria, like other developing nations, has continued to be riddled with audacious challenges that kept threatening to consume the state itself. Among the destabilizing factors that are sometimes mutually reinforcing are poverty and insecurity. Nigeria has been bedeviled with poverty since the onset of the 1980s when the country metamorphosed from an agricultural to an oil-based economy coupled with unbridled political corruption and wasteful management of resources by successive governments. The crippling poverty started manifesting in the scourge of criminalities and a general state of insecurity. Poverty gradually becomes the breeder of insecurity and threats to human life in Nigeria. Interestingly, successive governments tended to recognize the destructive tendencies of poverty and took several interventionist initiatives towards abating or slowing down the spate of poverty so as to reverse the trend of insecurity, but none of those initiatives can be adjudged good or enduring legacies. The emergence of the Buhari administration in 2015 provided a new opportunity to tackle poverty and, in turn, insecurity that had permeated every aspect of national life before that year’s presidential elections. Expectedly, the government took ambitious steps through its innovative ideas of intervention through its National Social Intervention Programmes (NSIP). Therefore, this paper is an assessment of the Buhari administration’s initiatives in poverty eradication in Nigeria as one of its strategies to fight insecurity, and the paper adopted a qualitative approach. The theoretical arguments put up by this paper are with respect to the connection between poverty and insecurity sourced from the theory of Relative Deprivation. The paper found that the Buhari administration has done better than any government since 1999 in inventing a social intervention program and that the poverty of the people has been addressed to a notable extent. However, the problem of politicization of intervention programs has continued to be the practice under the administration, and if this is not abated, the post-Buhari era may as well be like the eras before it. The paper recommends legislation that can make poverty ameliorating programs permanent, at least for some years to come, so as to avoid the usual policy summersault at every instance of political transition, which has limited the sustainability of public policies and indeed hindered nation-building efforts in Nigeria.

Keywords: insecurity, poverty alleviation, public policies, social intervention

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Authors: Wesam Darawsheh

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Background: there are scarcity of studies done to investigate the level of knowledge and the level of awareness and perception of Jordanians about occupational therapy (OT). Aim: to investigate the level of awareness of lay people, clients receiving services and healthcare professionals of OT, identify the common misconceptions about OT, and to explore ways whereby the knowledge and awareness about OT can be increased. Methodology: a cross sectional design was employed in this study where a survey was distributed in the Northern, Southern, Western, Eastern provinces and the Middle (capital city: Amman) province of Jordan. The survey consisted of eight section and 61 questions that aims to investigate the demographics of participants, self evaluation concerning knowledge and awareness about OT, sources of knowledge about OT, the perception of the aims, fields of practice, OT settings, misconceptions about OT, and suggestion to improve knowledge and awareness about OT. Results: A total of 829 participants were enrolled in this study: 459 lay people, 155 clients who are currently receiving OT services, 215 healthcare professionals. About 57% of the participants did not hear about OT, and 48% of those who reported to hear about OT did not have sufficient knowledge about it. There are several misconceptions associated with OT. The statistical analysis was executed using IBM SPSS software, Version 22.0 (SPSS, Chicago, USA). Conclusion: it is the responsibility of OTRs to increase the knowledge and awareness about OT in Jordan. This is required for the profession to proliferate and to be given its status.

Keywords: knowledge, occupational therapy misconceptions, healthcare professionals, lay people, Jordan

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Authors: Ratri A. Benedictus, Felicia M. Yolanda

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Public transport is a crucial issue for capital city in developing country, such as Jakarta. Inadequate number and low quality of public transport services resulting personal vehicles as the main option. As a result, traffic jams are getting worse in Jakarta. The low quality of public transport, particularly buses, compounded by the risk behavior of the driver. Traffic accidents involving public bus in Jakarta were often the case, even result in fatality. The purpose of this study is to get a description of risk behavior among the public bus drivers in Jakarta. 132 bus drivers become respondent of this study. Risky Driving Behavior scale of Dorn were used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. 51.5% of respondents felt often showing risky behavior while on driving. The highest type of risky driving behavior is still using the unsafe bus (62%). Followed by trespass the bus line (30%), over speed (21%), violate the road signs (15%) and driving with unhealthy physical condition (4%). Results of this study suggested that high understanding of the bus drivers on their risk behaviors have not lead to the emergence of safe driving behavior. Therefore, together with technical engineering and instrumentation work intervention over this issue, psychological aspects also need to be considered, such as: risk perception, safety attitude,safety culture, locus of control and Fatalism.

Keywords: bus driver, psychological factors, public transportation, risky driving behavior

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Authors: Prem Bahadur Giri, Mathinee Yucharoen

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Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) have been the core stone of forest management efforts in Nepal. Due to the lack of a smooth transition into the local governance structure in 2017, policy instruments have not been effectively cascaded to the local level, creating ambiguity and inconsistency in forest governance. Descriptive mixed-method research was performed with community users and stakeholders of Tarpakha community forest, Siranchowk Rural Municipality, to understand the role of the political economy in CFUG management. A household survey was conducted among 100 households (who also are existing members of the Tarpakha CFUG) to understand and document their energy consumption preferences and practices. Likewise, ten key informant interviews and five focus group discussions with the municipality and forest management officials were also conducted to have a wider overview of the factors and political, socio-economic, and religious contexts behind the utilization of renewable energy for sustainable development. Findings from our study suggest only 3% of households use biogas as the main source of energy. The rest of the households mention liquid petroleum gas (LPG), electricity and firewood as major sources of energy for domestic purposes. Community members highlighted the difficulty in accessing firewood due to strict regulations from the CFUG, lack of cattle and manpower to rear cattle to produce cow dung (for biogas), lack of technical expertise at the community level for the operation and maintenance of solar energy, among others as challenges of resource. Likewise, key informants have mentioned policy loopholes at both the federal and local levels, especially with regard to the promotion of alternative or renewable energy, as there are no clear mandates and provisions to regulate the renewable energy industry. The study recommends doing an in-depth study on the feasibility of renewable energy sources, especially in the context of CFUGs, where biodiversity conservation aspects need to be equally taken into consideration while thinking of the promotion and expansion of renewable energy sources.

Keywords: community forest, renewable energy, sustainable development, Nepal

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Authors: E. Fathallahi Aghdam, V. Hosseini

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Environmental pollution is not limited to a specific region or country; that is why sustainable development, as a necessary process for improvement, pays attention to issues such as destruction of natural resources, degradation of biological system, global pollution, and climate change in the world, especially in the developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, as a developing city, Tehran (capital of Iran) is one of the most polluted cities in the world in terms of air pollution. In this study, three pollutants including particulate matter less than 10 microns, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide were evaluated in Tehran using data mining techniques and through Crisp approach. The data from 21 air pollution measuring stations in different areas of Tehran were collected from 1999 to 2013. Commercial softwares Clementine was selected for this study. Tehran was divided into distinct clusters in terms of the mentioned pollutants using the software. As a data mining technique, clustering is usually used as a prologue for other analyses, therefore, the similarity of clusters was evaluated in this study through analyzing local conditions, traffic behavior, and industrial activities. In fact, the results of this research can support decision-making system, help managers improve the performance and decision making, and assist in urban studies.

Keywords: data mining, clustering, air pollution, crisp approach

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Authors: Fatemeh Yazdani

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This paper explores the student intake policies in high-performing private schools in Iran by studying both sides involved in the school choice processes, parents and the school leaders. It is based on in-depth interviews with 27 parents and private schools’ staff and principals supplemented by ethnographic observation in two private schools in Tehran. From the Bourdieusian point of view, this paper argues that the school leadership engineers the composition of private schools’ students via different gatekeeping strategies, and these strategies represent and reconstruct the school’s institutional habitus. It further explores the ways that parents who look for quality education among non-state education providers deal with the school's institutional habitus based on their familial habitus and possessed economic, social, and cultural capital. The conclusion highlights that investigating school choice as a reciprocal process between family and school leadership can shed more light on the ways that an exclusive environment has been created in some high-performing private schools for certain class strata maintaining a distance that needs to be kept from ‘others.’ In a broader sense, this paper engages into an exploration of social inequality reproduction through private education.

Keywords: institutional habitus, private education, school choice, social inequality, student intake

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Authors: Moujib Bahri, Rahim Kallel, Ouafa Sakka

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Corruption is a phenomenon that increases uncertainty and risk of SMEs as it undermines the quality of the business environment and the easy access to public services. Our research builds on existing research on corruption's effects on economic growth at the firm level. Several papers have analyzed the effect of firms’ payments of bribes on their performance; however, only limited research has investigated the link between corruption, innovation, and exports. Drawing on principal-agent theory, we explore how corruption weakens the institutional context and makes the business environment unsound and not conducive to innovation and exports. This study employs data from The Enterprise Surveys conducted in Tunisia between March 2013 and July 2014 by the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). The main objective of this survey was to gain a better understanding of Tunisian firms’ perception of the environment in which they operate. Since 2011, the country's political situation has become fragile and unstable, and public services are perceived as inefficient and corrupt. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 537 Tunisian manufacturing SMEs using structural equation modeling and path analysis. We find that political instability leads to higher level of corruption, and that excessive business licensing regulations create a fertile ground for bribery. Our findings do not support the greasing hypothesis suggesting that corruption can reduce the negative effect of bureaucratic delays and the hard access of companies to public services related to innovation and exports. Instead, our results support the sanding hypothesis according to which corruption hinders innovation activities and exports. Furthermore, corruption is found to, negatively and significantly, impact firms’ ownership of quality certificates. Our results suggest that, in an environment with a high level of corruption, governments and policymakers interested in assisting SMEs with their innovation and export activities should have a better control on corruption to allow them developing those activities without being forced to bribe government officers.

Keywords: corruption, innovation, exports, SMEs

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Authors: Khandoker Upama Kabir, Mohammad Fuhad Anwar Sinha

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Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is known not only for its fast growing economy, lively atmosphere, rich history, and culture but is also known for having a reputation of being a vastly populated city. The historic city centre of Dhaka (currently known as Puran Dhaka or Old Dhaka) which was conceived around the Pre-Mughal era and holds a lot of history and heritage of the region. This historic site has further been neglected, and most of the urban development has been done without integrating this part of the city into the plans. As a result, the festivals that take place traditionally throughout the year in this area create a greater impact on the urban fabric of the whole city. These festivals generate a huge amount of visitors and play a huge role in shaping the identity of the people. This paper will attempt to look at the importance of these traditions, the way these festivals are influencing the urban life of the community, and whether or not it has any significant effect on the economy. Through the use of both primary and secondary sources and SWOT analysis, this paper will attempt to identify the issues faced during these festivals. This paper will also try to suggest some basic remedies based on general comparisons between case studies of similar festivals celebrated globally and how these countries are dealing with such issues while also promoting tourism.

Keywords: urban fabric, festivals, cultural celebration, impact, historic city centre urban memory, mega events

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Authors: David Nchinda Keming

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The present study is focused on both the national and international collective fight against Boko Haram terrorism on Cameroon and the rule played by the Lake Chad Basin Countries (LCBCs) and the global community to suffocate the sect’s activities in the region. Although countries of the Lake Chad Basin include: Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger others like Benin also joined the course. The justification for the internationalisation of the fight against Boko Haram could be explained by the ecological and international climatic importance of the Lake Chad and the danger posed by the sect not only to the Lake Chad member countries but to global armed, civil servants and the international political economy. The study, therefore, kick start with Cameroon’s reaction to Boko Haram’s terrorist attacks on its territory. It further expounds on Cameroon’s request on bilateral diplomacy from members of the UN Security Council for an international collective support to staple the winds of the challenging sect. The study relies on the hypothesis that Boko Haram advanced terrorism on Cameroon was more challenging to the domestic military intelligence thus forcing the government to seek for bilateral and multilateral international collective support to secure its territory from the powerful sect. This premise is tested internationally via (multilateral cooperation, bilateral response, regional cooperation) and domestically through (solidarity parade, religious discourse, political manifestations, war efforts, the vigilantes and the way forward). To accomplish our study, we made used of the mixed research methodologies to interpret the primary, secondary and tertiary sources consulted. Our results reveal that the collective response was effectively positive justified by the drastic drop in the sect’s operations in Cameroon and the whole LCBCs. Although the sect was incapacitated, terrorism remains an international malaise and Cameroon hosts a fertile ground for terrorists’ activism. Boko Haram was just weakened and not completely defeated and could reappear someday even under a different appellation. Therefore, to absolutely eradicate terrorism in general and Boko Haram in particular, LCBCs must improve their military intelligence on terrorism and continue to collaborate with advanced experienced countries in fighting terrorism.

Keywords: Boko Haram, terrorism, domestic, international, response

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Authors: B. Khorsandi Talab, M. Kordi

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It is highly deplorable that every year, theft behavior among employees of the insurance industry is growing throughout the world. A very significant source of contraction (despite many costly technological and widespread security measures) needs to be addressed and prevented. Employee and agent theft cannot be ignored as it causes significant losses to employers. This study investigates the workplace factors that affect the insurance employee and agent theft behavior. Although identifying theft is difficult, this study will help employers to further understand employees’ theft behavior. This study was conducted in two service small and medium organizations (two branches of insurance companies) in ALBORZ’s capital city, KARAJ. Data has been collected via questionnaire from 30 employees and agents consisting employees and supervisors of branches and agencies. According to the results, it must be acknowledged that compensation, organizational justice, internal control systems, penalties and personal characteristics were associated with employees' theft behavior, it is despite the fact that, no effect could be assumed for organizational ethics and requirement in this case. Nevertheless, poor financial status cannot be considered as the driving factor in pushing employees to steal property as well as increasing their theft behavior. As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this study was to determine the factors contributing to employees’ theft (insurance employees and agencies) behavior in insurance organizations in Karaj.

Keywords: service theft, employee theft behavior, work theft, insurance agency, SMEs

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Authors: Sana Zia

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One of the most important questions for research on Muslim women's representation is the relationship between Islam and women’s situation in Islamic countries. In this context, certain questions can be raised like is it possible to analyze women’s situation in Islamic countries like Pakistan? Or what is the relationship between Islam and patriarchy? So this paper will examine all these questions by analysing Muslim women's representation in Pakistani Cinema. It is also significant to note that despite political and religious constraints in Muslim countries, in particular, Pakistan, women have not only been part of the film industry for long, but they also have chosen films as their feminist tool to question and expose the effects of patriarchy, religious fundamentalism, and gender-specific socio-cultural oppression. The religious-cultural ethos that could include gender-specific restrictions and limitations on their creative expression as Muslim women in an Islamic society. A new wave of Pakistani cinema is pivoting around strong Muslim female characters and opened up a new thought about Islamic women.Their contributions and success through this medium emphasized the need to investigate the significance and effectiveness of contemporary cinema as a tool of resistance and cross-cultural communication in a Muslim society. So this research can also provide a better understanding about Islam that needs to be modernized and reclaimed from the clutches of fundamentalism and extremism. This paper thus investigates the interrelation of women's representation and Pakistani cinema by analysing two films ‘Bol: To speak up’ and ‘Dukhter: Daughter’. The feminist analysis of these films not only helps to understand the new trends and dimensions in representation of Muslim women in Pakistani cinema, but this also helps to raise awareness globally regarding the depiction of Muslim women. So to foreground the above mentioned discussion, the films under study helps to evaluate their significance, the role they play towards activism, resistance, and global awareness in terms of what could be termed as a Muslim woman. The paper thus provides a valuable insight that how and why Islam is being used as a mechanism to merge social, political and economic factors to define the rights and conditions of Pakistani Muslim women and highlight the cinematic struggle of the film maker’s which by using films as an awareness tool are going to highlight the problems and issues of Muslim women in the global world.

Keywords: Muslim women, Pakistani cinema, patriarchy, religious fundamentalism

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Authors: Auliya Adzillatin Uzhma, Ismu Rini Dwi Ari, I. Nyoman Suluh Wijaya

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Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme in Pantai Harapan Jaya village is cultivation of mangrove and fishery capital distribution, to achieve the goal the CSR programme needed participation from the society in it. Moeliono in Fahrudin (2011) mentioned that participation from society is based by intrinsic reason from inside people it self and extrinsic reason from the other who related to him or from connection with other people. The fundamental connection who caused more boundaries from action which the organization can do called the social structure. The purpose of this research is to know the form of public participation and the density of the villager and people who is participated in CSR programme. This research use Social Network Analysis method by knew the Rate of Participation and Density. The result of the research is people who is involved in the programme is lived in Dusun Pondok Dua and they work in fisheries field. Rate of Participation is 11,61 and that means people involved in 11 or 12 activites of CSR Programme. The rate of participation of CSR Programme is categorized as high rate participation. The density value from the participant is 0.516 it’s mean that 51.6% of the people that participated is involved in the same step of CSR programme.

Keywords: community participation, social network analysis, corporate social responsibility, urban and regional studies

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Authors: Enayatollah Yazdani

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In the post-Cold War era, the world is facing a new emerging global order with the rise of multiple actors in the international arena. China, as a rising global power, has great leverage in internal relations. In particular, during the last two decades, China has rapidly transformed its economy into a global leader in advanced technologies. As a rising power and as one of the two major founding members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), China has tried to use this regional organization, which has the potential to become an important political and security organization of the major states located in the vast Eurasian landmass, for its “go global” strategy. In fact, for Beijing, the SCO represents a new and unique cooperation model, reflecting its vision of a multipolar world order. China has used the SCO umbrella as a multilateral platform to address external threats posed by non-state actors on its vulnerable western border; to gain a strong economic and political foothold in Central Asia without putting the Sino-Russian strategic partnership at risk; and to enhance its energy security through large-scale infrastructure investment in, and trade with, the Central Asian member states. In other words, the SCO is one of the successful outcomes of Chines foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. The expansion of multilateral ties all over the world by dint of pursuing institutional strategies as SCO identifies China as a more constructive power. SCO became a new model of cooperation that was formed on the remains of collapsed Soviet system and predetermined China's geopolitical role in the region. As the fast developing effective regional mechanism, SCO now has more of an external impact on the international system and forms a new type of interaction for promoting China's grand strategy of 'peaceful rise.' This paper aims to answer this major question: How the Chinese government has manipulated the SCO for its foreign policy and global and regional influence? To answer this question, the main discussion is that with regard to the SCO capabilities and politico-economic potential, this organization has been used by China as a platform to expand influence beyond its borders.

Keywords: China, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Central Asia, global policy, foreign policy

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Authors: Shuk Ting Kinnia Yau

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As China has become more and more influential in the global and geo-political arena, mutual understanding between Japan and China has also become a topic of paramount importance. There have always been tensions between the two countries, but unfortunately, each country tends to blame the other for fanning emotions. This research will investigate portrayals of China and the Chinese people in Japanese media such as newspapers, TV news, TV drama, and cinema over this period, focusing on media sources that have particularly wide viewership or readership. By doing so, it attempts to detect any general trends in the positive or negative character of such portrayals and to see if they correlate with the results of surveys of attitudes among the general population. To the degree that correlations may be found, the question arises as to whether the media portrayals are a reflection of societal attitudes towards the Chinese, on one hand, or may be playing a role in promoting such attitudes, on the other. The relationship here is, without doubt, more complex than a simple one-way relationship of cause and effect, but indications of some direction of causality may be suggested by trends in one occurring before or after the other. Evidence will also be sought of possible longer-term trends in media portrayals of China and the Chinese people in Japan during the post-2012 period, i.e., Abe Shinzo’s second term as prime minister, in comparison to earlier periods. Perceptions of Japan’s view of China and the Chinese, both inside and outside the scholarly world, tend to be oversimplified and are often incomprehensive. This research calls attention to the role played by the media in promoting or de-promoting Sino-Japanese relations. By analyzing the nature and background of images of China and the Chinese people presented in the Japanese media, especially under the new Abe Regime, this research seeks to promote a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of attitudes in Japanese society towards its gigantic neighbor. Scholars have seen the increasingly fragile Sino-Japanese relationship as inseparable from the real-world political conflicts that have become more frequent in recent years and have sought to draw a correlation between the two. The influence of the media, however, remains a mostly under-explored domain in the academic world. Against this background, this research aims to provide an enriched scholarly understanding of Japan’s perception of China by investigating to what extent such perception can be seen to be affected by subjective or selective forms of presentation of China found in the Japanese media, or vice versa.

Keywords: Abe Shinzo, China, Japan, media

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Authors: Pankaj Kumar

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Rapid global changes resulted in unfavorable hydrological, ecological, and environmental changes and cumulatively affected natural resources. As a result, the local communities become vulnerable to water stress, poor hygiene, the spread of diseases, food security, etc.. However, the central point for this vulnerability revolves around water resources and the way people interrelate with the hydrological system. Also, most of the efforts to minimize the adverse effect of global changes are centered on the mitigation side. Hence, countries with poor adaptive capacities and poor governance suffer most in case of disasters. However, several transdisciplinary numerical tools are well designed and are capable of answering “what-if questions” through scenario analysis using a system approach. This study has predicted the future water environment in Marikina River in the National Capital Region, Metro Manila of Philippines, using Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP), an integrated water resource management tool. Obtained results can answer possible adaptation measures along with their associated uncertainties. It also highlighted various challenges for the policy planners to design adaptation countermeasures as well as to track the progress of achieving SDG 6.0.

Keywords: water quality, Philippines, climate change adaptation, hydrological simulation, wastewater management, weap

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Authors: Masami Usui

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After 9/11, the American literary scene was confronted with new perspectives that enabled both writers and readers to recognize the hidden aspects of their political, economic, legal, social, and cultural phenomena. There appeared an argument over new and challenging multicultural aspects after 9/11 and this argument is presented by a tension of space related to 9/11. In Amy Waldman’s the Submission (2011), designing both the memorial park and the family network has a significant meaning in establishing the progress of understanding from multiple perspectives. The most intriguing and controversial topic of racism is reflected in the Submission, where one young architect’s blind entry to the competition for the memorial of Ground Zero is nominated, yet he is confronted with strong objections and hostility as soon as he turns out to be a Muslim named Mohammad Khan. This ‘Khan’ issue, immediately enlarged into a social controversial issue on American soil, causes repeated acts of hostility to Muslim women by ignorant citizens all over America. His idea of the park is to design a new concept of tracing the cultural background of the open space. Against his will, his name is identified as the ‘ingredient’ of the networking of the resistant community with his supporters: on the other hand, the post 9/11 hysteria and victimization is presented in such family associations as the Angry Family Members and Grieving Family Members. These rapidly expanding networks, whether political or not, constructed by the internet, embody the contemporary societal connection and representation. The contemporary quest for the significance of human relationships is recognized as a quest for global peace. Designing both the memorial park and the communication networks strengthens a process of facing the shared conflicts and healing the survivors’ trauma. The tension between the idea and networking of the Garden for the memorial site and the collapse of Ground Zero signifies the double mission of the site: to establish the space to ease the wounded and to remember the catastrophe. Reading the design of these icons of 9/11 in the Submission means that decoding the myth of globalization and its representations in this century.

Keywords: American literature, cultural studies, globalization, literature of catastrophe

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Authors: Shemroy Roberts

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Despite minor theoretical contributions in slavery heritage tourism research that have commented on the demand-side perspective, visitor behavior and engagement with slavery heritage attractions remain unexplored. Thus, there is a need for empirical studies and theoretical knowledge to understand visitor engagement with slavery heritage attractions, particularly U.K. slavery heritage museums. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the factors that influence visitor engagement with U.K. slavery heritage museums. This qualitative research utilizes a passive symbolic ethnographic methodology. Seven U.K. slavery heritage museums will be used to collect data through unobtrusive internet-mediated observations of TripAdvisor reviews and online semi-structured interviews with managers and curators. Preliminary findings indicate that social media, prior knowledge, multiple motivations, cultural capital, and the design and layout of exhibits influence visitor engagement with slavery heritage museums. This research contributes to an understanding of visitor engagement with U.K. slavery heritage museums. The findings of this paper will provide insights into the factors that influence visitor engagement with U.K. slavery heritage museums to managers, curators, and decision-makers responsible for designing and managing those attractions. Therefore, the results of this paper will enable museum professionals to better manage visitor engagement with slavery heritage museums.

Keywords: museums, netnography, slavery, visitor engagement

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Authors: Jim O'brien

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Contemporary global representation and consumption of La Liga across a plethora of media platform outlets has resulted in significant implications for the historical, political and cultural developments which shaped the development of Spanish club football. This has established and reinforced a hierarchy of a small number of teams belonging to or aspiring to belong to a cluster of global elite clubs seeking to imitate the blueprint of the English Premier League in respect of corporate branding and marketing in order to secure a global fan base through success and exposure in La Liga itself and through the Champions League. The synthesis between globalization, global sport and the status of high profile clubs has created radical change within the folkloric iconography of Spanish football. The main focus of this paper is to critically evaluate the consequences of globalization on the rich tapestry at the core of the game’s distinctive history in Spain. The seminal debate underpinning the study considers whether the divergent aspects of globalization have acted as a malevolent force, eroding tradition, causing financial meltdown and reducing much of the fabric of club football to the status of by standers, or have promoted a renaissance of these traditions, securing their legacies through new fans and audiences. The study draws on extensive sources on the history, politics and culture of Spanish football, in both English and Spanish. It also uses primary and archive material derived from interviews and fieldwork undertaken with scholars, media professionals and club representatives in Spain. The paper has four main themes. Firstly, it contextualizes the key historical, political and cultural forces which shaped the landscape of Spanish football from the late nineteenth century. The seminal notions of region, locality and cultural divergence are pivotal to this discourse. The study then considers the relationship between football, ethnicity and identity as a barometer of continuity and change, suggesting that tradition is being reinvented and re-framed to reflect the shifting demographic and societal patterns within the Spanish state. Following on from this, consideration is given to the paradoxical function of ‘El Clasico’ and the dominant duopoly of the FC Barcelona – Real Madrid axis in both eroding tradition in the global nexus of football’s commodification and in protecting historic political rivalries. To most global consumers of La Liga, the mega- spectacle and hyperbole of ‘El Clasico’ is the essence of Spanish football, with cultural misrepresentation and distortion catapulting the event to the global media audience. Finally, the paper examines La Liga as a sporting phenomenon in which elite clubs, cult managers and galacticos serve as commodities on the altar of mass consumption in football’s global entertainment matrix. These processes accentuate a homogenous mosaic of cultural conformity which obscures local, regional and national identities and paradoxically fuses the global with the local to maintain the distinctive hue of La Liga, as witnessed by the extraordinary successes of Athletico Madrid and FC Eibar in recent seasons.

Keywords: Spanish football, globalization, cultural identity, tradition, folklore

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Authors: Miria Gambardella

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The influence of solidarity demonstrations towards the Zapatista National Liberation Army has been constantly present over the years, both locally and internationally, guaranteeing visibility to the cause, shaping the movement’s choices, and influencing its hopes of impact worldwide. Most of the coffee produced by the autonomous cooperatives from Chiapas is exported, therefore making coffee trade the main income from international solidarity networks. The question arises about the implications of the relations established between the communities in resistance in Southeastern Mexico and international solidarity movements, specifically on the strategies adopted to conciliate army's demands for autonomy and economic asymmetries between Zapatista cooperatives producing coffee and European collectives who hold purchasing power. In order to deepen the inquiry on those topics, a year-long multi-site investigation was carried out. The first six months of fieldwork were based in Barcelona, where Zapatista coffee was first traded in Spain and where one of the historical and most important European solidarity groups can be found. The last six months of fieldwork were carried out directly in Chiapas, in contact with coffee producers, Zapatista political authorities, international activists as well as vendors, and the rest of the network implicated in coffee production, roasting, and sale. The investigation was based on qualitative research methods, including participatory observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews. The analysis did not only focus on retracing the steps of the market chain as if it could be considered a linear and unilateral process, but it rather aimed at exploring actors’ reciprocal perceptions, roles, and dynamics of power. Demonstrations of solidarity and the money circulation they imply aim at changing the system in place and building alternatives, among other things, on the economic level. This work analyzes the formulation of discourse and the organization of solidarity activities that aim at building opportunities for action within a highly politicized economic sphere to which access must be regularly legitimized. The meaning conveyed by coffee is constructed on a symbolic level by the attribution of moral criteria to transactions. The latter participate in the construction of imaginaries that circulate through solidarity movements with the Zapatista rebellion. Commercial exchanges linked to solidarity networks turned out to represent much more than monetary transactions. The social, cultural, and political spheres are invested by ethics, which penetrates all aspects of militant action. It is at this level that the boundaries of different collective actors connect, contaminating each other: merely following the money flow would have been limiting in order to account for a reality within which imaginary is one of the main currencies. The notions of “trust”, “dignity” and “reciprocity” are repeatedly mobilized to negotiate discontinuous and multidirectional flows in the attempt to balance and justify commercial relations in a politicized context that characterizes its own identity through demonizing “market economy” and its dehumanizing powers.

Keywords: coffee trade, economic anthropology, international cooperation, Zapatista National Liberation Army

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Authors: Michael Augustus Akagbor

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Same-sex relationships have always existed in Ghana. In coastal towns such as James Town in the heart of the country’s capital, persons who were sexually different and attracted to members of their own sex were able to live their lives openly as queer persons without any fear for their lives. Since 2006, this idyllic existence has been under attack, with LGBTQ+ communities suffering violence and discrimination. This paper highlights the lived experiences of the LGBTIQ+ community in Ghana against the backdrop of the anti-gay bill - The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 (now renamed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2021), currently before Parliament, introduced by eight members of Parliament as a Private Members’ Bill, and its implications for the LGBTQ+ community. The paper makes recommendations to key stakeholders on strategies to counter the cultural and religious arguments/strategies and activism of the anti-LGBTQ+ movement in Ghana. It relied on secondary data from a variety of sources, including the Bill before Parliament, media reports, and baseline surveys and studies conducted by LGBTQ organizations and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Ghana and elsewhere.

Keywords: sexual rights, promotion, family values, lgbtq+, ghana, discrimination

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Authors: Haroon Mahmood, Christopher Gan, Cuong Nguyen

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Maturity transformation risk is highlighted as one of the major causes of recent global financial crisis. Basel III has proposed new liquidity regulations for transformation function of banks and hence to monitor this risk. Specifically, net stable funding ratio (NSFR) is introduced to enhance medium- and long-term resilience against liquidity shocks. Islamic banking is widely accepted in many parts of the world and contributes to a significant portion of the financial sector in many countries. Using a dataset of 68 fully fledged Islamic banks from 11 different countries, over a period from 2005 – 2014, this study has attempted to analyze various factors that may significantly affect the maturity transformation risk in these banks. We utilize 2-step system GMM estimation technique on unbalanced panel and find bank capital, credit risk, financing, size and market power are most significant among the bank specific factors. Also, gross domestic product and inflation are the significant macro-economic factors influencing this risk. However, bank profitability, asset efficiency, and income diversity are found insignificant in determining the maturity transformation risk in Islamic banking model.

Keywords: Basel III, Islamic banking, maturity transformation risk, net stable funding ratio

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Authors: Balogun Azeez Olawale, Azeez S. A.

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Post occupancy evaluation (POE) is a process of assessing building performance for its users and intended function during the occupation. User satisfaction impacts the performance of educational environments and their users: students, faculty, and staff. In addition, buildings are maintained and managed by teams that spend a large amount of time and capital on their long-term sustenance. By evaluating the feedback from users of higher education facilities, university planning departments are more prepared to understand the inputs for programming and future project planning. In addition, university buildings will be closer to meeting user and maintenance needs. This paper reports on a research team made up of academics, facility personnel, and users that have developed a plan to improve the quality of campus facilities through a POE exercise on a recently built project. This study utilized a process of focus group interviews representing the different users and subsequent surveys. The paper demonstrates both the theory and practice of POE in higher education and learning environment through the case example of four universities in Nigeria's POE exercise.

Keywords: post occupancy evaluation, building performance, building analysis, building evaluation, quality control, building assessment, facility management, design quality

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