Introduction

Hawwa ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Rajnaara C. Akhtar ◽  
Mulki Al-Sharmani ◽  
Annelies Moors

Abstract Muslim marriages are far from homogeneous, and the inherent variability of norms and practices is often missing in the framing of such marriages in Western societies. Marriage and family laws in Muslim-majority contexts are sights of contention, debate, and development. These debates often centre around family as a site of state governance driven by overlapping national and international agendas; gender equality and calls for marriage law reform; and tensions between Islamic jurisprudence, state laws, and lived realities. This introductory article sets the scene for this special issue focussing on the plurality of norms and practices in Muslim marriages within Muslim-majority jurisdictions.

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Doucette ◽  
Bae-Gyoon Park

This special issue highlights an exciting range of contemporary, interdisciplinary research into spatial forms, political economic processes, and planning policies that have animated East Asian urbanization. To help situate this research, this introductory article argues that the urban as form, process, and imaginary has often been absent from research on East Asian developmentalism; likewise, the influence of developmentalism on East Asian urbanization has remained under-examined in urban research. To rectify this issue, we propose a concept of urban developmentalism that is useful for highlighting the nature of the urban as a site of and for developmentalist intervention in East Asia. We then outline the contribution made by the articles in this special issue to three key themes that we feel are germane for the study of urban developmentalism across varied contexts: geopolitical economies, spaces of exception, and networks of expertise.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde ◽  
Lars Engberg-Pedersen ◽  
Adam Moe Fejerskov

Contemporary development cooperation is characterized by an increasing tension between a growing diversity of actors and significant attempts at homogenizing development practices through global norms prescribing ‘good development’. This special issue shows empirically how diverse development organizations engage with global norms on gender equality. To understand this diversity of norm-engagement conceptually, this introductory article proposes four explanatory dimensions: (i) organizational history, culture and structures; (ii) actor strategies, emotions and relationships; (iii) organizational pressures and priorities; and (iv) the normativeenvironment and stakeholders. We argue that, while development organizations cannot avoid addressing global norms regarding gender equality, they do so in considerably divergent ways. However, the differences are explained less by whether these organizations constitute ‘new’ or ‘old’ donors than by the four identified dimensions.


1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-214
Author(s):  
Mahmud Arif

In general, we know about Egypt very well, because of all this time, Egypt, especially Kairo, has been viewed as one of the centers of Islamic thought in the world. Naturally this country had a lot of Islamic thinkers, like Mahmud Syaltut (d. 1963) that has become the Rector of al-Azhar University. The influence of his thought overstepped the bounds of time and political territory. The Islamic jurisprudence is an inseparable legal thought from the fulfillment of social demands. One of the evidences is its’ response to actual issues, like gender equality represented in his opinions about domestical duty, women testimony, girl marriage, and poligamy. As a thinker in the Islamic jurisprudence, Syaltut has endeavored to respond such issues, including gender. As a reformer in the turbulent time, his reflection on such matters expressed critical preference, so frequently looked different from the prevalent opinion. In one side, his reflection was “liberal” because of his bravery in stepping beyond the Islamic orthodoxy and the modernity, but in another side, his thought was “conservative”if it was viewed from his endorsement to the old Islamic thought that reflected a gender bias. This showed the uniqueness and the ambivalence of his thought, so very interesting to being studied.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000765032098508
Author(s):  
Sameer Azizi ◽  
Tanja Börzel ◽  
Hans Krause Hansen

In this introductory article we explore the relationship between statehood and governance, examining in more detail how non-state actors like MNCs, international NGOs, and indigenous authorities, often under conditions of extreme economic scarcity, ethnic diversity, social inequality and violence, take part in the making of rules and the provision of collective goods. Conceptually, we focus on the literature on Areas of Limited Statehood and discuss its usefulness in exploring how business-society relations are governed in the global South, and beyond. Building on insights from this literature, among others, the four articles included in this special issue provide rich illustrations and critical reflections on the multiple, complex and often ambiguous roles of state and non-state actors operating in contemporary Syria, Nigeria, India and Palestine, with implications for conventional understandings of CSR, stakeholders, and related conceptualizations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Barbara Schulte ◽  
Marina Svensson

This special issue approaches information and communication technologies (ICT) visions and their realisation/implementation at various levels, among different actors and from various perspectives. Conceptually, we distinguish three different dimensions, even though those overlap in the individual contributions as well as in empirical reality – namely ideational, instrumental, and relational. The different contributions address both visions formulated by the Chinese state and by individual actors such as entrepreneurs. Even though the conditions for the use of ICT in China are deeply affected by state governance, this governance is in no way tantamount to one single government. As this issue’s contributions show, state attempts at building a stable cyber-governance are in need of allies and, depending on the allies’ visions and other, competitive visions, the outcomes of these dynamics are seldom truthful realisations of one original grand masterplan.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194084472110126
Author(s):  
Mirka Koro ◽  
Gaile S. Cannella ◽  
M. Francyne Huckaby ◽  
Jennifer R. Wolgemuth

The purpose of this special issue is to generate and expand the locations and perspectives from which justice and equity, in multiple forms, are and can be, orienting concepts for critical qualitative inquiry. Although critical inquiry originates from diverse views, concerns, and conditions, all forms would always and already address matters of privilege/harm, equity/ inequity, and justice/injustice, while at the same time challenging power-oriented dualisms, systematic western notions of progress, and capitalist gains. This introductory article describes the work of special issue authors asking questions like: How might critical qualitative inquiry build from the past while at the same time lead to more just possibilities, leading to something we might recognize as inquiry as/toward/for justice? How can critical scholarship be theorized, designed, and practiced with justice as the orienting focus within (en)tangled times, materials and material injustices?


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-38
Author(s):  
Will Smiley

This Article addresses and critiques the case for state-level legislative bans on courts citing “Islamic law” or the law of Muslim-majority countries. In particular, the Article reviews the most substantive evidence adduced by the bans’ supporters, in the form of a set of state court cases published by the Center for Security Policy (CSP). Very few of these cases, in fact, show courts actually applying Islamic or foreign law, and in none of these cases would the various forms of proposed legislation have been likely to alter the result. Thus even this report does not suggest a need for the state laws purporting to ban sharīʿa. The Article thus argues that even if these bans are not unconstitutionally discriminatory in their effect, they are ineffective at achieving their claimed purpose. This Article was originally published as an Occasional Paper in the Harvard Papers in Islamic Law series in 2018.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Aisha S. Durham ◽  
Wesley Johnson ◽  
Sasha J. Sanders

Florida is a site of critical inquiry and figures prominently in the US American imaginary. The Sunshine State sets the stage for broader conversations about cultural difference, climate change, and participatory democracy. Contributors to this special issue apply the canonical circuit of culture model to address the interrelated nature of culture and power. They provide methodologically thick, fleshy interpretive analyses that privilege experiential, experimental, and embodied approaches to take seriously Florida cultural politics, people, and popular forms.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 749-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary M Crow ◽  
Jorunn Møller

This introductory article attempts to set a conceptual stage for the special issue on identities of school leaders. We do this by beginning with a discussion of identity – its definition, philosophical roots, nature, and components. We then move to a discussion of identity development and the various dimensions that characterize this development. The article ends with a brief description of a critical constructivist model of identity. Our intention in the article is not to offer a theoretical framework that will be used by the article authors, but to offer a conceptual stage that provides the background for understanding identity.


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