Telepsychology

Telepsychology, until recently, was slow-moving and half-heartedly acknowledged in the mental health profession. There is increasing scholarly discourse on the digital therapeutic space. This shift to a digital paradigm means re-evaluating the profession's identity. This chapter considers telepsychology in relation to social justice. It highlights access for underserved groups and the digital divide that limits a substantial population from accessing online services. It identifies the need to integrate telepsychology in community psychology interventions, a significant framework to challenge systemic inequalities in mental health. It outlines the inadequacy of the profession to support needs of diversity in the field and considers if telehealth is one way to bring a shift in the homogenous identity of the profession. Telepsychology has the potential to amplify adherence to social justice principles; however, this requires evolved responses on individual, institutional, and systemic levels to bring unconventional but substantial changes in training, research, and regulatory guidelines.

Universal Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah and Their Modern Application: Towards Ensuring a Peaceful and Secured Environment

The maqāṣid theory is a popular trend in Islamic legal theories. Contemporary scholars view it as a valid method of interpreting the revealed text and as a valuable instrument for solving contemporary issues because it helps reform Islamic thought and civilization. Indeed, the idea of maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah has been widely studied and expanded by modern scholars of Islamic legal theory. Chiefly, Ibn ͑Ashur and contemporary MaqÉsid scholars renewed the scholarly discourse and ensured its proliferation and wide acceptance in legal studies. It has emerged as a new science that connects with all other legal disciplines. Thus, scholars firmly assert that the maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah constitute the most important intellectual means and methodologies for Islamic reform today. Consequently, the researchers aim to examine the modern discourse of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah and the latest developments beyond the universal MaqÉÎid. Mainly, the researchers scrutinize the two objectives namely the preservation of the environment via the protection of life and wealth. Accordingly, this article follows the qualitative method of data collection and analysis. Among the findings of the research is that the latest developments of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, open the door of ijtihād widely to create ample areas for jurists to regulate the affairs of the Muslim ummah. Further, the maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah do not reflect only the objectives of Islamic law; their role goes beyond and is used to formulate basic principles and values related to global peace and human welfare. Hence, they have greatly contributed to the revival of Islamic thought and have opened a wider space for the application of Islamic law pertaining to peaceful environment.

Cross-lingual citations in English papers: a large-scale analysis of prevalence, usage, and impact

Citation information in scholarly data is an important source of insight into the reception of publications and the scholarly discourse. Outcomes of citation analyses and the applicability of citation-based machine learning approaches heavily depend on the completeness of such data. One particular shortcoming of scholarly data nowadays is that non-English publications are often not included in data sets, or that language metadata is not available. Because of this, citations between publications of differing languages (cross-lingual citations) have only been studied to a very limited degree. In this paper, we present an analysis of cross-lingual citations based on over one million English papers, spanning three scientific disciplines and a time span of three decades. Our investigation covers differences between cited languages and disciplines, trends over time, and the usage characteristics as well as impact of cross-lingual citations. Among our findings are an increasing rate of citations to publications written in Chinese, citations being primarily to local non-English languages, and consistency in citation intent between cross- and monolingual citations. To facilitate further research, we make our collected data and source code publicly available.

Exploring Frontiers in Electronic Evidence: The Philippine Experience

This paper is the first formal empirical study on electronic evidence (EE) since the promulgation of Rules on Electronic Evidence (REE) by the Philippine Supreme Court in 2001. A basic qualitative research design was employed in the study. A total of 29 litigation lawyers and 13 trial judges from the Province of Cavite and the National Capital Region were the participants in the study. A qualitative survey questionnaire was used to gather data from the participants through Google Docs. Results showed that EE was more commonly presented in criminal cases, a few in civil cases, and none in quasi-judicial and administrative cases. Text messages were found to be the most frequently presented EE at trial. Results further revealed three major themes such as (1) admissibility of EE, (2) authentication of EE, and (3) suggestions on the implementation of REE. The vagueness of REE provisions on the admissibility of electronic evidence results in varying interpretations of judges, which ultimately affect their appreciation of the evidence presented at a trial. The present empirical study would indeed contribute to the scholarly discourse of electronic evidence showcasing the Philippine experience.

The public sphere in the twilight zone of publicness

The article discusses the reasons and conditions for the rise and fall of the popularity of the public sphere concept in scholarly discourse in four parts. The first part examines the peculiar circumstances of the emergence of the concept of the public sphere, and its rapid and widespread adoption in the social sciences. The second part discusses the complexity of the concept “Öffentlichkeit” and its English proxy “the public sphere,” and the contemporary critique of its ideological predispositions. The third part focuses on the liberalization and (operational) banalization of the concept. The final part suggests ways in which social scientists could respond critically to the challenges outlined earlier and reintegrate publicness, the public, and the public sphere into the analysis.

Repressed, Remitted, Rejected

Since unification, the Federal Republic of Germany has carried out vaunted efforts to make amends for the crimes of the Third Reich. Yet it remains the case that the demands for restitution by many countries that were occupied during the Second World War are unresolved, and recent demands from Greece and Poland have only reignited old debates. This book reconstructs the German occupation of Poland and Greece and gives a thorough accounting of these debates. Working from the perspective of international law, it deepens the scholarly discourse around the issue, clarifying the ‘never-ending story’ of German reparations policy and making a principled call for further action.

Sweden, Barbary Corsairs, and the Hostis Humani Generis

In this chapter, the intersection of piracy with scholarly discourse and state policy is traced through a period of acute political crisis in Sweden in the early years of the eighteenth century. By focusing on one student dissertation presented at Uppsala University in 1716, it is argued here that Sweden’s then precarious position necessitated a delicate navigation of piracy in both the Baltic and the Mediterranean. While the scholarly traditions of natural law provided ample resources to condemn pirates as mere sea robbers, this one dissertation illustrates how moral, philosophical, and historical arguments could be marshalled in defence of a more equivocal attitude to piracy, which also reflected the delicate balancing act performed by the Swedish state.

Under the Brutal Watch: A Historical Examination of Slave Patrols in the United States and Brazil During the 18th and 19th Centuries

Though less discussed in the literature, slave patrols played a significant role in continuing and sustaining the system of slavery. While few scholars have dedicated attention to exploring the history of slave patrols in the United States (US), there remains a dearth of research analyzing the slave patrol system in Brazil, despite the existence of slavery in this area of the African Diaspora. Using a historical perspective, this article compares and examines the establishment, function, expansion of slave patrols in the US and Brazil between the 18th and 19th centuries. This article adds to the scholarly discourse and historical literature on the experiences and conditions of enslaved people in the African diaspora (i.e., US and Brazil) under the brutal watch of slave patrols. Future research and investigation is needed to gain nuanced understanding of slave patrols not only in these two specific geographical regions, but globally across the African diaspora.

THE ROLE OF FRENCH ISLAMIC STUDIES AND ARABIC STUDIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

French Islamic studies, which have traditionally been at the forefront of humanitarian knowledge, have experienced their ups and downs: Orientalism generated by the era of the Crusades, colonial politics and the postcolonial period of the crisis of recovery, in which migrants live, “border” on the once advanced concept of multiculturalism, the search for an inclusive education and tolerant social and labor policies. Scientists note that the historiographic works of the early 20th century authored by French researchers focus on the negative consequences of the Arab-Muslim conquests for the development of the classical culture of the North African region. Later, with the study of the intellectual heritage of Muslim cultural figures, scientific knowledge came to understand the role of Islamic culture in ensuring the preservation of ancient traditions and the continuous development of humanistic thought. Historiographic and geopolitical work has been replaced by interdisciplinary research based on a cross-cultural approach. In this regard, Islamic scholarly discourse is enriched by the research of Muslim authors who speak Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, who are able to reveal the problems under study related to Islam from the inside, and not from the standpoint of subject-object relations.

The Armenian Apostolic Church in the Politics of the Russian Empire: the Search for an Administrative Optimum

The article analyzes governmental debates on the functions, rights and privileges of the Armenian Catholicoi in the context of inter-institutional controversies. The author attempts to identify and analyze the most influential programmes for solving the “Echmiadzin issue” and their origins presenting at the same time certain aspects of political interaction between the Russian Empire and the Armenian Church as overlapping processes and related events. The history of relationships between Russian state and Armenian Church in XIX–XX centuries shows that different actors of the imperial politics had different ideas about the optimal model of cooperation with Echmiadzin. The divisions took place not only between the various departments (the Ministry of Internal Affairs versus the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), but also within them, where individual officials could hold “anti-departmental” views in each particular case. All this hindered administrative consolidation, slowed down the empire's response to important political challenges and dragged the imperial structures into protracted service-hierarchical confrontations. The “Etchmiadzin Question” and the governmental discussions around it show in part the administrative paralysis of the autocracy and the decompensation of the system of power in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. The article employs a rich documentary base of archival materials from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive. These materials are introduced into the scholarly discourse for the first time ever.