Healthcare quality for Muslims: TCCM and TSR frameworks analyses

Purpose Transformative service research (TSR) has received considerable attention from researchers and marketers in recent years and becomes a research priority in health care. In response, this paper adapts the TSR entities and wellbeing framework to systematically review healthcare quality research on Muslim consumers. The purpose of this paper is to identify research gaps and provide directions for future research, aligning healthcare studies with the TSR framework. Design/methodology/approach The authors of this paper reviewed empirical papers in healthcare quality research on Muslim patients between the years 2000 and 2020. The recorded journal articles were synthesized using insights from the TSR framework. Several literature gaps were identified and future research directions were provided using the TCCM framework, in which T stands for theory, C for context, C for characteristics and M for methodology. Findings This paper finds studies that encompass several domains of the TSR framework including cultural and religious dimensions, service interaction and customer engagement dimensions and customer service wellbeing. Findings also reveal subject matters related to the TSR framework, which receive less attention in the healthcare literature. A number of potential avenues for theoretical extension in health care are also discussed. Social implications The implications of this paper are highly relevant to Muslim healthcare consumers, the healthcare system and society in general. The findings suggest inspiring changes in the healthcare ecosystem that yields a greater quality of life (health and wellbeing) for individuals and their respective communities. Originality/value This paper advances the current state of healthcare research by identifying and organizing components of TSR entities and wellbeing framework, using Muslim patients as the context. It enhances some pioneering approaches within the domain of TSR and quality dynamics and provides a holistic perspective as guidance and systematic thinking to further advancement in the field of services marketing and Islamic marketing.

Who would Iranian Muslims help? Religious dimensions and moral foundations as predictors

Religiosity has been linked with prosocial behavior and a preference for religious ingroups over outgroups. Yet, there are important differences in religious people’s beliefs, values, and practices. Fundamental and quest orientation toward religion may differentially predict intergroup bias in prosociality. Also, individualizing and binding moral foundations may have diverse effects on ingroup and outgroup bias in helping, as moral foundations theory (MFT) suggests that individualizing and binding foundations differ in how much they focus on ingroup and outgroup moral considerations. In this study, we examined the relationship between religious dimensions (quest religion, religious fundamentalism, intrinsic religiosity, and religious activity), moral foundations, prosocial behavior, and intergroup bias in helping. We found evidence for the effect of individualizing foundations, religious fundamentalism, and quest religion above and beyond demographics and other religious dimensions on intergroup bias in helping. Furthermore, there were independent positive effects of individualizing foundations, religious activity, and age, and independent negative effects of female gender and religious fundamentalism on prosocial behavior. This study provides a more nuanced understanding of the relations between religion, prosociality, and moral intuitions in a Muslim context.

Does a denomination matter? Differences in religiosity and value systems between Catholics and Anglicans

The purpose of this empirical article is to investigate differences between two Christian denominations: Catholics and Anglicans in terms of religiosity and values. Religiosity was measured within dimensions of centrality of religiosity and religious coping, while the value system contained hedonic, vital, aesthetic, truth, moral, and sacred values. In addition, potential associations between the dimensions of religiosity and values were assessed. One hundred and fifty one participants (75 Catholics and 76 Anglicans) completed three questionnaires: the Centrality of Religiosity Scale, the Brief RCOPE Scale, and the Scheler Values Scale. The results demonstrated that Catholics were characterised by higher levels of religious dimensions representing communal worship related to the sacraments, while Anglicans more strongly favoured religious dimensions reflecting an individual approach to religiosity. Catholics also obtained higher levels of hedonic and vital values than Anglicans. In addition, there were significant associations between most dimensions of religiosity and sacred values. Taken together, the findings emphasise the need for a combined study of religiosity and values which appears central to the formation of people’s religious beliefs and behaviour.

Women and Church Ministry in Africa: Removing the Impasse Towards a Fruitful Theological Conversation.

Women in Africa, both in the traditional setup and in modern society form the cornerstone of the Church and society. They have spearheaded change in traditional and modern society and heralded the Gospel message on the African soil. Based on the formidable roles women played and the influential areas of authority they occupied in the social, economic, political, and religious dimensions of African traditional societies, such as priestesses, diviners, medicine women etc., I attempt to understand the role women play and the place they occupy in the Church and in society today taking the Catholic Church as a case study. The aim of this paper is to seek to understand the roles women play in society, as well as discerning how the roles could be promoted and improved for the betterment of the Church and society. For the discussion to achieve its objective, the following areas will be addressed: explore the place and the significance that traditional African society accorded to women; investigate the nature of women’s involvement in the life of the community as well as the precise roles that traditional society assigned to women; discover the place of women in Christianity and some of the roles the Catholic Church assigns to women members as documented; understand some of the challenges women face as members of the Church and the roles they play in enhancing the Gospel; and finally attempt to provide some recommendations in response to some of the challenges identified.

Women and Church Ministry in Africa: Removing the Impasse Towards a Fruitful Theological Conversation

Women in Africa, both in the traditional setup and in modern society form the cornerstone of the Church and society. They have spearheaded change in traditional and modern society and heralded the Gospel message on the African soil. Based on the formidable roles women played and the influential areas of authority they occupied in the social, economic, political, and religious dimensions of African traditional societies, such as priestesses, diviners, medicine women etc., I attempt to understand the role women play and the place they occupy in the Church and in society today taking the Catholic Church as a case study. The aim of this paper is to seek to understand the roles women play in society, as well as discerning how the roles could be promoted and improved for the betterment of the Church and society. For the discussion to achieve its objective, the following areas will be addressed: explore the place and the significance that traditional African society accorded to women; investigate the nature of women’s involvement in the life of the community as well as the precise roles that traditional society assigned to women; discover the place of women in Christianity and some of the roles the Catholic Church assigns to women members as documented; understand some of the challenges women face as members of the Church and the roles they play in enhancing the Gospel; and finally attempt to provide some recommendations in response to some of the challenges identified.

Atmospheric Citizenship

In Mumbai the sonic dimensions of place-making and religious life are deeply connected to the right to the city. For Twelver Shi‘i Muslims, who are marginal to both the city and the nation, public religious rituals and processions have long played very important roles in staging claims to the city. Investigating the sonic aspects of urban place-making, including its religious dimensions, this essay draws on an analytic of atmospheres in order to capture the powerful emotive dimensions of place-making through sonic performances. Through its coupling with the feltbody, the sonic plays a privileged role in giving urban locales a specific feel as belonging to particular groups, investing this feel with an air of facticity that is largely immune to discursive critique. This article focuses on ritual performances and processions among Twelver Shi‘i Muslims during the Islamic month of Muharram in order to analyze nondiscursive and atmospheric forms of citizenship.

Religious Dimensions in Transhumanist and Posthumanist Philosophies of Science

The article discusses transhumanism and posthumanism as marginal trajectories of the modern philosophy of science, which, however, distinctly influence the mainstream narrative of science and societal relations. Among the decisive determinants of this impact is trans/posthumanism’s para-religious content that replenishes a conceptualised process of cutting-edge scientific practices and ideals. In particular, transhumanism and posthumanism evolve as ideological exploiters of seemingly obsolete forms of religiosity, for they simultaneously exploit and reinvent the entire apparatus of the scientific, political, and moral activity in Western societies. Avant-garde secular worldviews tend to be religious in the sense that their ultimate quest is the transformation of humans into certain historical entities, which are capable of rearranging their own systems of order.

Islamic Paradigm of Money: Interconnected Dimensions

In Islam, money is viewed as a means to measure value and a tool for transactions. This study explains other dimensions of money while also examining its use in the interconnected social and religious phases of human life. Since money is perceived differently across cultures, we conducted a literature review to identify dimensions other than the one considered by Western culture. For this purpose, we used scientific articles, book chapters, and books as the primary sources, which allowed us to obtain a complete and coherent description of the phenomenon under study. According to the results, money not only has a transactional dimension that seeks to maximize profit (as it is mainly conceived by Western culture) but also a social and religious dimension. Giving money can be more satisfying than giving in-kind. In Islam, the money collected is freely spent based on individual needs. In addition, money (dinar and dirham) serves to measure pious deeds when employed as a unit of account in zakat and qurban, as well as in inheritances. In Islam, a proper management of monetary assets can help to link the social and religious dimensions in a coherent manner.

Higher Education, Exclusion, and Belonging

Generations of migrants from Asia since the 1800s have endured challenges in locating their place and belonging in Australia due to systemic racism and discrimination against the cultural and religious ‘other’. These persistent issues have intensified during the pandemic, especially towards Chinese communities, including international students. This paper investigates the impact of the pandemic on Chinese, Indian and Russian international students in Australia. It reveals how, throughout the first year of the pandemic, international student, ethnic and religious community organizations implemented multiple and overlapping coping strategies to assist international students in Australia, who had been left vulnerable by a lack of government support and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Asia-Pacific region. By highlighting the religious dimensions of these strategies of connectedness and belonging, it contributes new insights in an under-explored aspect in studies on international students in Australia, pointing the way for further investigation.