scholarly journals The Logic of Dispossession

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 522-544
Author(s):  
Lipon Mondal
Keyword(s):  
Urban Life ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Agricultural Society ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
World Systems Analysis

One particular focus of world-systems analysis is to examine the historical trajectory of capitalist transformation in peripheral regions. This paper investigates the capitalist transformation in a specific peripheral area—the country of Bangladesh. In particular, it examines the role of dispossession in transforming an agricultural society into a neoliberal capitalist society by looking at the transformation of Panthapath Street in Dhaka, Bangladesh, since 1947. Building on the existing literature of dispossession, this article proposes an approach that explains the contribution of dispossession in capitalist accumulation. The proposed theory consists of four logics of dispossession: transformative, exploitative, redistributive, and hegemonic. These four logics of dispossession, both individually and dialectically reinforcing one another, work to privatize the commons, proletarianize subsistence laborers, create antagonistic class relations, redistribute wealth upward, and commodify sociopolitical and cultural aspects of urban life. This paper’s central argument is that dispossession not only converted an agricultural society into a capitalist society in Bangladesh, but that dispossession continues to reproduce the country’s existing capitalist system. This research draws on a wide range of empirical and historical evidence collected from Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2017 and 2018.

Predicting Human Mobility with Reinforcement-Learning-Based Long-Term Periodicity Modeling

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Shuo Tao ◽  
Jingang Jiang ◽  
Defu Lian ◽  
Kai Zheng ◽  
Enhong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Recurrent Network ◽  
Mobility Prediction ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
Temporal Features ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Historical Trajectory

Mobility prediction plays an important role in a wide range of location-based applications and services. However, there are three problems in the existing literature: (1) explicit high-order interactions of spatio-temporal features are not systemically modeled; (2) most existing algorithms place attention mechanisms on top of recurrent network, so they can not allow for full parallelism and are inferior to self-attention for capturing long-range dependence; (3) most literature does not make good use of long-term historical information and do not effectively model the long-term periodicity of users. To this end, we propose MoveNet and RLMoveNet. MoveNet is a self-attention-based sequential model, predicting each user’s next destination based on her most recent visits and historical trajectory. MoveNet first introduces a cross-based learning framework for modeling feature interactions. With self-attention on both the most recent visits and historical trajectory, MoveNet can use an attention mechanism to capture the user’s long-term regularity in a more efficient way. Based on MoveNet, to model long-term periodicity more effectively, we add the reinforcement learning layer and named RLMoveNet. RLMoveNet regards the human mobility prediction as a reinforcement learning problem, using the reinforcement learning layer as the regularization part to drive the model to pay attention to the behavior with periodic actions, which can help us make the algorithm more effective. We evaluate both of them with three real-world mobility datasets. MoveNet outperforms the state-of-the-art mobility predictor by around 10% in terms of accuracy, and simultaneously achieves faster convergence and over 4x training speedup. Moreover, RLMoveNet achieves higher prediction accuracy than MoveNet, which proves that modeling periodicity explicitly from the perspective of reinforcement learning is more effective.

scholarly journals Putting them on a strong spiritual path: Indigenous doulas responding to the needs of Indigenous mothers and communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Cidro ◽  
Caroline Doenmez ◽  
Stephanie Sinclair ◽  
Alexandra Nychuk ◽  
Larissa Wodtke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Post Partum ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Trauma Informed Care ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Post Partum Period ◽  
The Right

Abstract Objective In the past few years, increasing numbers of Indigenous doula collectives have been forming across Canada. Indigenous doulas provide continuous, culturally appropriate support to Indigenous women during pregnancy, birth, and the post-partum period. This support is critical to counter systemic medical racism and socioeconomic barriers that Indigenous families disproportionately face. This paper analyzes interviews with members of five Indigenous doula collectives to demonstrate their shared challenges, strategies, and missions. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with members of five Indigenous doula collectives across Canada in 2020. Interviews were transcribed and returned to participants for their approval. Approved transcripts were then coded by all members of the research team to ascertain the dominant themes emerging across the interviews. Results Two prominent themes emerged in the interviews. The first theme is “Indigenous doulas responding to community needs.” Participants indicated that responding to community needs involves harm reduction and trauma-informed care, supporting cultural aspects of birthing and family, and helping clients navigate socioeconomic barriers. The second theme is “Indigenous doulas building connections with mothers.” Participants’ comments on providing care to mothers emphasize the importance of advocacy in healthcare systems, boosting their clients’ confidence and skills, and being the “right” doula for their clients. These two inter-related themes stem from Indigenous doulas’ efforts to counter dynamics in healthcare and social services that can be harmful to Indigenous families, while also integrating cultural teachings and practices. Conclusion This paper illustrates that Indigenous doula care responds to a wide range of issues that affect Indigenous women’s experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the post-partum period. Through building strong, trusting, and non-judgemental connections with mothers and responding to community needs, Indigenous doulas play a critical role in countering medical racism in hospital settings and advancing the resurgence of Indigenous birthing sovereignty.

scholarly journals The East and the West

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-134
Author(s):  
Hye K. Pae
Keyword(s):  
East Asian ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
The West ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Attention And Perception ◽  
Analytic Problem

Abstract This chapter reviews the cultural aspects of the East and the West. A wide range of differences between the East and the West is discussed in terms of the extrinsic and intrinsic differences. The extrinsic differences comprise architecture, the mode of clothing, everyday practices, and language and script, while the intrinsic differences consist of culture and value systems, attention and perception (holistic vs. analytic), problem solving (relation vs. categorization), and rhetorical structure (linear vs. roundabout). The locus of these differences is identified with respect to philosophical foundations and the characteristics of Eastern and Western cultures. The prevalent interpretations of the differences between the East and the West center on Diamond’s (1999) guns, germs, and steel, Nisbett’s (2003) geography of thought, and Logan’s (2004) alphabet effects. However, these interpretations cannot explain differences in ideologies, religious practices, and societal values among Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. Therefore, script relativity becomes a new interpretation of the engine behind the differences among the three East-Asian nations and between the East and the West.

scholarly journals Assessing Urban Quality of Life: Developing the Criteria for Saudi Cities

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamal Al-Qawasmi ◽  
Muhammad Saeed ◽  
Omar S. Asfour ◽  
Adel S. Aldosary
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Urban Quality Of Life ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Urban Quality

Urban quality of life (QOL) is a complex and multidimensional concept. A wide range of urban QOL assessment tools has been developed worldwide to measure and monitor the quality of urban life taking into account the particular conditions of cities/regions and the needs of their residents. This study aims to develop an urban QOL assessment tool appropriate for the context of Saudi Arabia (SA). For this purpose, this study developed and used a structured approach that consists of an in-depth analysis of 21 urban QOL assessment tools in use worldwide, combined with focus group analysis and feedback from a panel of experts. The results revealed that there is a lack of consensus among the existing tools regarding the usage of QOL indicators and domains, and that the majority of the tools demonstrate a lack of proper coverage of QOL subdomains. The results also show wide variations in the number of indicators used and that most of the examined tools are using objective measurable indicators. This study has identified 67 indicators distributed across 13 domains that constitute the core criteria of the proposed QOL assessment tool. The selected indicators and domains cover all the attributes of urban QOL and are evaluated by experts as important criteria to assess/measure QOL. Moreover, the results demonstrate the advantage of the developed framework and comprehensive list of criteria (CLC) as a structured and efficient approach to design better QOL assessment tools.

scholarly journals Evolution of coordinated punishment to enforce cooperation from an unbiased strategy space

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (156) ◽  
pp. 20190127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julián García ◽  
Arne Traulsen
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Strategy Space ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Commons ◽  
The Stability

The emergence and maintenance of punishment to protect the commons remains an open puzzle in social and biological sciences. Even in societies where pro-social punishing is common, some individuals seek to cheat the system if they see a chance to do so—and public goods are often maintained in spite of cheaters who do not contribute. We present a model accounting for all possible strategies in a public goods game with punishment. While most models of punishment restrict the set of possible behaviours, excluding seemingly paradoxical anti-social strategies from the start, we show that these strategies can play an important role in explaining large-scale cooperation as observed in human societies. We find that coordinated punishment can emerge from individual interactions, but the stability of the associated institutions is limited owing to anti-social and opportunistic behaviour. In particular, coordinated anti-social punishment can undermine cooperation if individuals cannot condition their behaviour on the existence of institutions that punish. Only when we allow for observability and conditional behaviours do anti-social strategies no longer threaten cooperation. This is due to a stable coexistence of a minority supporting pro-social institutions and those who only cooperate if such institutions are in place. This minority of supporters is enough to guarantee substantial cooperation under a wide range of conditions. Our findings resonate with the empirical observation that public goods are resilient to opportunistic cheaters in large groups of unrelated individuals. They also highlight the importance of letting evolution, and not modellers, decide which strategies matter.

scholarly journals A Dynamic Model of the Tragedy of the Commons in Marketing-Intensive Industries

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Dohoon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Social Commerce ◽  
Interior Equilibrium ◽  
Business Ecosystem ◽  
Basic Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
The Commons

This study provides a dynamic model and analyzes its process that may plunge the business ecosystem into ToC (the Tragedy of the Commons). When developing the model, we have in mind some industries where the marketing competition to secure a large installed base is intense. The social commerce industry is a representative example of this type of industries, but the scope of this study is not limited to the industry. We first introduce a previous study focusing on the static Nash equilibrium, and then present an extended version of the basic model in a dynamic perspective. According to our analyses on the dynamic equilibria together with their stability, there may be a unique interior equilibrium, but it is highly likely unstable. In addition, possible (near) boundary equilibria are also unstable for a wide range of parameter values. We also conduct some numerical experiments and discover cycles as solutions to some particular instances. Since those cycles contain the ToC traps, a policy measure or regulation may need to be employed. Our approach and results will help to figure out a clue to escape from the ToC trap, thereby shedding new light on the sustainable growth of the business ecosystem, which is prone to excessive marketing competition.

scholarly journals Islam and the End of History

1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-535
Author(s):  
Ali A. Mazrui
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The End Of History ◽  
Seminal Article ◽  
The Cold War

IntroductionThe debate about the end of history raises issues that sometimestouch almost upon the philosophy of history, insofar as they relate to thesignificance of not only a particular century but of the human species.Francis Fukuyama provoked this debate in his seminal article entitled,"The End of History?" in the journal The National Interest. 'At the end ofthe twentieth century, Fukuyama saw "an unabashed Victory of economicand political liberalism."' His central argument was that the whole worldwas moving towards a liberal democratic capitalist system that was destinedto be the final sociopolitical paradigm of all human evolution. AsFukuyama put it:What we may be witnessing is just not the end of the Cold War,or the passing of a particular period of postwar history, but theend of history as such that is, the end point of mankind's ideologicalevolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracyas the final form of human govemment.For Fukuyama, at the time of writing the original article (in 1989),the momentous changes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, ...

scholarly journals Multilingual Education in the World and the Experience of Introduction in Kazakhstan

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sholpan Zharkynbekova ◽  
Kuandyk Kulmanov ◽  
Madina Tussupbekova ◽  
Aliya Abaidilda
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Academic Motivation ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
International Integration ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Multilingual Education ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Positive Results

The need for reflection and in-depth study of issues related to the multilingual policy, where the knowledge of the native language simultaneously stimulates knowledge and learning of other languages is obvious in the context of the dynamic changes taking place in Kazakhstan. Existing world models of multilingual education represent a wide range of forms, productive use of which depends on many factors (language situation, economic and social conditions, historical and cultural aspects and so on). There is no doubt that multilingual education programs conditioned by the logic of development of Kazakhstan and the process of international integration are in demand in the Kazakhstan's educational system. This is due to high academic motivation of students and practitioners conditioned by the desire to improve professional competence and competitiveness in the conditions of Kazakhstan's international integration. However, it should be noted that despite the measures taken for the implementation of multilingual education and the first positive results of the pilot models many issues related to the widespread introduction of multilingual education system in the country have not yet been resolved. The analysis of the languages functioning in Kazakhstan revealed the prerequisites for the formation of multilingual person. We defined language preferences of citizens, their value priorities, related to ongoing multilingual policy, the influence of non-native (studied) languages to their native languages by using sociolinguistic methods. All these measures have allowed seeing the prospects of strengthening and development of the state, Russian and English languages, effectiveness of the language policy and possible steps to resolve these problems.     Keywords: Language policy; identity; Language situation; Language modernisation; Multilingual education; Multilingualism, Trinity of languages

scholarly journals Perspectivas y contextos de la prosocialidad y la convivencia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Otálora-Buitrago ◽  
Mauricio Hernández Pérez ◽  
Irma Yaneth Gómez ◽  
Pablo Páramo Bernal ◽  
Myriam Carmenza Sierra-Puentes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Professional Performance ◽  
Individual Culture ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Units Of Analysis

This work presents the findings of different disciplines, methodologies and fields of action of social scientists, in which an intra and extra-disciplinary dialogue is established on coexistence and prosociality. For this reason, the compilation includes complementary references in methods, experiments, correlations, studies of social networks, etc.; concepts, verbiage, executive functions, environmental conditions, cultural aspects; and units of analysis, for example, individual, culture, groups, texts, etc. The chapters present research results carried out in specialized settings both at university and in socially situated contexts. This book is in line with the scientific agenda and the national current challenges such as the educational impacts of the conflict as regards the post-peace agreement with the FARC-EP; the group dynamics of the groups of victims; the conflict associated with urban life, the physical violence against women; the fulfillment of education goals for sustainable development and local governance, among others. Each chapter presents specific recommendations on the findings for scientists and professionals with social interests, as well as open theoretical discussions and future studies. This wealth of scientific and professional voices highlights the central role of research centers, in terms of the type and quality of research and professional performance for the construction of peace culture in Colombia.

scholarly journals Managing the economic sustainability of the Belt and Road Initiative by applying Pragmatic Identity Matching PrIM

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Erbach
Keyword(s):  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Integration Framework ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Identity Matching ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
The Belt And Road

AbstractAchieving and managing economic sustainability is one of the crucial tasks for our globalized world. One of the most ambitious economic projects known to humankind claims to stand for long-term global economic sustainability including ecological, social, and cultural aspects: the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in which China invites the world to join its vision of a “peaceful cooperation for the wealth and cultural exchange of all nations” (Xi Jinping 2013 in his famous speech Promote People-to-People Friendship an Create a Better Future). This invitation led to a wide range of responses, from fundamental rejection to supportive participation. Matching the participants in this megaproject—their contributions, particular prerequisites, and development interests—requires a holistic participative planning approach with solutions tailored specifically to the participating partners. This article shows how Pragmatic Identity Matching (PrIM), a scalable integration framework, can be used to meet this requirement. PrIM provides an identity-oriented infrastructure for aligned planning, implementation and communications, acknowledging, and embracing participants from different cultural backgrounds such as Asian, Arabian, African, Russian, and European cultures. As a structural-scientific approach that synthesizes elemental semiotic thinking and research in psychology and the neurosciences, PrIM provides a meta-planning structure beyond any value-driven positions and perspectives, one that imparts equivalence to information. PrIM can help the BRI avoid a spiral of non-coordinated activities, thereby preventing loss of investment. The formation of a transdisciplinary BRI Management Academy that uses PrIM would help create the necessary infrastructure for a successful and transparent implementation of the BRI.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document