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Diasporic Syrian women writers: stories of resilience and survival
Get PDFIn 2020, Ghada Alatrash and Najat Abed Alsamad noted that, ‘Historically Syrians have written and spoken about exile in their literature, long before the Syrian war began in March of 2011 (p. 4). This paper brings together two Syrian women writers who straddle this epochal moment in Syrian history: Mohja Kahf and Ibtisam Tracy. It seeks to bridge the gap between these writers and to chart new trends in diasporic writing by Syrian women. It argues that bringing Kahf and Tracy into the same frame captures the complex diasporic positioning of contemporary Syrian women writers. This in turn offers new perspectives on transnational and postcolonial criticism, in particular by focusing on gendered resilience in the diaspora through the act of storytelling in solidarity. By bringing into discussion current socio-political issues presented by Syrian women, this paper seeks to challenge the dominant representations of Muslim/Arab women in general and Syrian women in particular
Simulation of manufacturing scenarios’ ambidexterity green technological innovation driven by inter-firm social networks: based on a multi-objective model
Get PDFThe mechanism of the impact of inter-firm social networks on innovation capabilities has attracted much research from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. However, as a special emerged and developing complex production system, how the scenario factors affect the relationship between these variables has not yet been analyzed. This study identified several scenario factors which can affect the firm’s technological innovation capabilities. Take the manufacturing scenario in China as an example, combined with the need for firms’ ambidexterity innovation and green innovation capability, a multi-objective simulation model is constructed. Past empirical analysis results on the relationship between inter-firm social network factors and innovation capabilities are used in the model. In addition, a numerical analysis was conducted using data from the Chinese auto manufacturing industry. The results of the simulation model led to several optimization strategies for firms that are in a dilemma of development in the manufacturing scenario
The hermeneutics of recovery: facilitating dialogue between African and Western mental health frameworks
Get PDFAbstract: The widespread use of faith-based and traditional healing for mental disorders within African contexts is well known. However, normative responses tend to fall within two camps: on one hand, those oriented towards Western psychiatry stress the abuses and superstition of such healing, whilst, critics adopting a more ‘local’ perspective have fundamentally challenged the universalist claims of Western diagnostic categories and psychiatric treatments. What seemingly emerges is a dichotomy between those who endorse more ‘universalist’ or ‘relativist’ approaches as an analytical lens to the challenges of the diverse healing strands within African contexts. In this paper we draw upon the resources of philosophy and existing empirical work to challenge the notion that constructive dialogue cannot be had between seemingly incommensurable healing practices in global mental health. First, we suggest the need for much needed conceptual clarity to explore the hermeneutics of meaning, practice, and understanding, in order to forge constructive normative pathways of dialogue between seemingly incommensurable values and conceptual schemas around mental disorder and healing. Second, we contextualise the complex motives to emphasise difference amongst health practitioners within a competitive healing economy. Finally, we appeal to the notion of recovery as discovery as a fruitful conceptual framework which incorporates dialogue, comparative evaluation, and cross-cultural enrichment across divergent conceptualisations of mental health
Why no true Reliabilist should endorse Reliabilism
Get PDFCritics have recently argued that reliabilists face trade-off problems, forcing them to condone intuitively unjustified beliefs when they generate lots of true belief further downstream. What these critics overlook is that reliabilism entails that there are side-constraints on belief-formation, on account of which there are some things you should not believe, even if doing so would have very good epistemic consequences. However, we argue that by embracing side-constraints the reliabilist faces a dilemma: she can either hold on to reliabilism, and with it aforementioned side-constraints, but then needs to explain why we should allow the pursuit of justification to get in the way of the acquisition of true belief; or she can deny that there are side-constraints—and in effect give up on reliabilism. We’ll suggest that anyone moved by the considerations that likely attract people to reliabilism in the first place—the idea the true belief is good, and as such should be promoted—should go for the second horn, and instead pursue a form of epistemic utilitarianism
Generalized Watson distribution on the Hypersphere with applications to clustering
Get PDFA family of probability density functions (pdfs) is defined on the unit hypersphere S^{n}. The parameter space for the pdfs is G(d, n+1)xR_{>= 0}, for 1 = 0} is the range of values for a concentration parameter. This family of pdfs generalizes the Watson distribution on the sphere S^{2}. It is shown that the pdfs are tractable, in that i) a given pdf can be sampled efficiently, ii) the parameters of a pdf can be estimated using maximum likelihood, and iii) the Kullback-Leibler divergence and the Fisher-Rao metric on G(d, n+1)xR_{>= 0} have simple forms. A wide range of shapes of the pdfs can be obtained by varying d and the concentration parameter.
The pdfs are used to model clusters of feature vectors on the hypersphere. The clusters are compared using the Kullback-Leibler divergences of the associated pdfs. Experiments with the mnist, Human Activity Recognition and Gas Sensor Array Drift datasets show that good results can be obtained from clustering algorithms based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence, even if the dimension n of the hypersphere is high
Attitudes to Islam and Muslims in the Christian Balkans
Get PDFBook synopsis: This book, the first to explore the politics of definitions from an interdisciplinary perspective, encourages readers to reconsider the value and limits of definitions in confronting antisemitism and Islamophobia. In recent years, definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia have become central to the struggle to combat the hostility, harassment and discrimination experienced by Jews and Muslims. Yet these definitions have also provoked fierce controversy: critics have questioned whether they are fit for purpose, or have criticised them as unwelcome attempts to restrict freedom of expression. In this edited collection, historians, social scientists and philosophers reflect on definitions of antisemitism and Islamophobia in both the past and the present. Its contributors investigate the different historical contexts which have shaped definitions and examine their different political purposes and meanings, as well as addressing contemporary debates, and identifying ways for us to move beyond our current impasse. This book therefore provides a broad and new perspective from which to comprehend present day minority politics
Social media as e-governance: digital lives of Indian municipal bodies and smart cities
Get PDFThe place of social media in democratic governance is contested. Advocates suggest that it increases institutional accountability and/or public participation, while critics see it as promotional and polarizing. Research on social media use by city governments finds both citizen engagement and city branding, however, little is known about the digital lives of urban governments in India. Here we examine social media use amongst India’s 100 Smart City Mission cities against the wider context of uneven and precarious internet access. We focus on Twitter, a platform routinely used by Indian governments and politicians, through an original dataset of over 4.5 million tweets over ten years—including full timelines for 97 smart cities—to explore social media behaviors and public responses. We argue that 1) while municipal bodies and smart city parastatal entities have different patterns of Twitter use they both work within a framework of city marketing and “civic storytelling”; and 2) although participation initially falls within a performance of tokenistic one-way government to citizen communication, we can trace an evolution of social media use driven by online complaints prompting government response
Managers as the bridge: how cultural friction influences the integration of cross-border mergers and acquisitions
Get PDFDespite the abundant research on the effect of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As), very few studies examined the effect of M&As on acquirers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially in the context of emerging economies. We used data of Chinese listed enterprises and the difference-in-differences (DID) approach to examine the effect of cross-border M&As on the CSR of Chinese acquirers. The results show that cross-border M&As have a positive and significant impact on Chinese acquirers’ CSR as well as four detailed dimensions of CSR (Corporate Governance, Employee Relations, Environment Protection, and Product). In addition, we use two indicators, the number of dialects and the proportion of the population using dialects in a particular region, to measure the regional cultural diversity. The results show that the positive relationship between overseas M&As and CSR is strengthened by higher cultural diversity in the region. Moreover, the positive effect of the aforementioned four dimensions of CSR is also stronger when the cultural diversity is more substantial
The value of occupational health and human resources in supporting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace
Get PDFMelaku Geboye Desta, Dereje Feyissa Dori, and Mamo Esmelealem Mihretu, eds, Ethiopia in the Wake of Political Reforms
Get PDFThis book appeared at what was in hindsight a particular and short-lived moment in Abiy Ahmed’s premiership. Predating the global pandemic, the post-ponement of the national election and the conflict in Tǝgray that has drawn in regional actors, it reflects both the optimism and the uncertainty surrounding rapid political change in 2019 to early 2020. A multidisciplinary volume, it represents divergent political viewpoints and contrasting writing styles and formats, from sweeping historical and macroeconomic overviews to tightly delineated accounts of primary research, to policy-focused contributions
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