Role Identity, Dissonance, and Distress among Paramedics

Role identity theory describes the purpose and meaning in life that comes, in part, from occupying social roles. While robustly linked to health and well-being, this may become, however, when an individual is unable to fulfil the perceived requirements of an especially salient role in the way that they believe they should. Amid high rates of mental illness among public safety personnel, we interviewed a purposely selected sample of 21 paramedics from a single service in Ontario, Canada to explore incongruence between an espoused and able-to-enact paramedic role identity. Situated in an interpretivist epistemology, and using successive rounds of thematic analysis, we developed a framework for role identity dissonance wherein chronic, identity-relevant disruptive events cause emotional and psychological distress. While some participants were able to recalibrate their sense of self and understanding of the role, for others, this dissonance was irreconcilable, contributing to disability and lost time from work. In addition to contributing a novel perspective on paramedic mental health and well-being, our work also offers a modest contribution to the theory in using the paramedic context as an example to consider identity disruption through chronic workplace stress.

Mobilising sociology of sport for social change beyond the pandemic

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, conversations about how to build sport back better are becoming increasingly pronounced. The crisis both deepens inequities and creates opportunity as a new way to configure sport post-pandemic demands to be discovered. The challenge has been thrown down to sociologists to help reimagine and reshape the course of sport. What might such re-enchantment look like? And how might it help realise the sociology of sport’s untapped potential to advance impactful public sociology? This paper explores these questions with a particular focus on sociologists of sport as co-creators of, and actors in, social change. I discuss five issues that I see as being relevant for rethinking and reconfiguring sport beyond the pandemic: (1) reclaiming the ludic and pleasure; (2) rethinking sociality in sport; (3) social inequities and ‘sport for all’; (4) de-/re-centring power in sport for development; and (5) global interdependence and interconnectedness. The insights presented can hopefully make a modest contribution to our collective understanding of transformative practice in and through the sociology of sport in uncertain times.

The Constitutionalization of International Law After Liberalism

Many political changes that have taken place across the world in the last decade have been connected with the spill-over of a new narrative in the public dimension. Among other things, this narrative has emphasized returning control over the public space to the people once again, revitalization of the democratic community, restraint on an expansion of judicial power over representational politics, and in many instances, a specific national approach to the questions of governance. These trends have gained the name “illiberal democracy”, a description which Viktor Orban introduced into the language of political practice a few years later. Indeed, in many countries worldwide, from the United States of America (USA) during the presidency of Donald Trump, Central and Eastern Europe, to Turkey and Venezuela, it has been possible to observe changes which had the principal leitmotif to negate liberal democracy as the only possibility of organizing public space within the state. These trends are continuing, and there are no signs of them disappearing in the near future. The new dispensation in the USA under President Biden also does not guarantee an immediate return to the liberal internationalism of the 1990s. Political changes directed toward the constitutional space of the State have inspired researchers to consider the issues of new constitutionalism, new forms of democracy, and the rule of law beyond liberalism. This article is an attempt to transfer these considerations to the international level. The text aims to consider whether withdrawal from the liberal doctrine could also be observed on an international level and what these facts could mean for the intellectual project of constitutionalization of international law. Building upon reflections on constitutionalism and constitutionalization of international law, this text presents what has up until now been the mainstream understanding of international law as a liberal construct. This showcases the illiberal turn observed among certain countries as exemplified by the anti-liberal and realist language of their constitutional representatives. In this respect, this analysis is a modest contribution to the so far nascent field of sociology of international law. However, the main endeavor of this article is to unchain the notions of international liberalism and constitutionalization of international law as being popularly understood as two sides of the same coin. Consequently, the idea of political constitutionalism of international law is introduced. Seeing things from this perspective, this text focuses on the material rather than formal aspects of international law's constitutionalization. Within the stream of so called thick constitutionalism, there are a few elements listed with which the discussion about international law may continue to engage, if this law is to be considered as legitimate not only formally, but also substantially.

Implications of daily applied artificial intelligence and the future of our rights

Nowadays, artificial intelligent technologies are all in our hands, and we all make a modest contribution, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, in their further improvement. The increasing development, adoption and use of intelligent technologies and systems has shown that an algorithm is able to predict consumer’s needs, or furthermore wishes, or diagnose a disease with an accuracy rate beyond average natural human intelligence. While the use of artificially intelligent technologies and machines revolutionizes crucial sectors such as health, finance and banking and the economy and market needs, boundaries are still to be set. This paper analyzes ethical implications of day-to-day use of AI along with the need and steps towards human rights law to address AI impacts.

Research on Monitoring System of Transmission Tower Operation State Based on Multi-Sensor Data Fusion

In the power network system, the main role of transmission tower is responsible for supporting the transmission line, to ensure the normal operation of the power network system. But the transmission tower in the outdoor, easy to be affected by the external environment, resulting in tower collapse, wire broken and other problems. Based on this, this paper, by using multi-sensor data melting technology on transmission tower operation monitoring system are studied, in particular, the system has carried on the design of hardware, software, and then with the inspection of transmission tower temperature and humidity data fusion, the effective monitoring results, confirmed the feasibility of the system design. Through this research, the aim is to make a modest contribution to the transmission tower motion state monitoring.

‘In the night kitchen’: Gender, identity and artisanal work

Using the theoretical lens of identity work, the objective of the article is to explore how the identity of an entrepreneurial, female, artisan food producer is constructed and enacted. Emphasis is given to a gendered examination of how artisan and entrepreneur as facets of identity co-exist, compete or integrate. The article relies on a phenomenologically oriented case study that comprises numerous sources including primary data from multiple, in-depth, interviews. The data are used to examine identity work undertaken by the case subject across the following categories: dramaturgical, socio-cognitive, psycho-dynamic, discursive and symbolic. The article makes a modest contribution to furthering understanding of the female entrepreneurial identity from a novel perspective.

Geographies of production III: Global production in/through nature

This report draws upon political ecology and nature–society geography to examine the production network–nature nexus. Indebted to these approaches, a growing number of production network and value chain studies are expanding well beyond the field’s traditional remit of environmental governance. This work centers the institutional arrangements of firms, laboratories, workers, and regulations that organize and combine extensive and intensive strategies to appropriate nature’s value. ‘Nature’ is neither input nor output here; rather, it is metabolized in and through the functional coordination of these spatially distributed activities. I explore these themes in recent studies of resource extraction and frontier-making, chemical geographies of biocides, and the material-cum-geographical claims of ethical supply chains. Expanding and deepening the dialogue between conjunctural analyses of states, labor, and supply chains, on the one hand, and how socionatures condition these arrangements, on the other, is both analytically and politically necessary. I offer this, my final report, as a modest contribution to this endeavor.

Better Late than Never: Reparations for Sexual Violence in the Ntaganda case before the International Criminal Court

The Prosecutor v Bosco Ntaganda case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) represents the long awaited first reparation order for sexual violence at the court. This will hopefully see the implementation of reparations for the war crimes and crimes against humanity of rape and sexual slavery among civilians and former child soldiers, after previous cases such as against Jean-Pierre Bembe and Laurent Gbagbo were acquitted of rape. This article drawing from the author's role as a reparation expert in the case, is a reflection on the challenges of designing and providing reparations at the ICC against convicted individuals, as well as amidst insecurity and the COVID-19 infectious disease pandemic. It begins by discussing how the Ntaganda reparation order expanded reparation principles for the first time since the Lubanga case, in particular for crimes of a sexual nature. This is followed by an outline of some of the harms as a result of sexual violence from the perspective of an expert with a medical background. The analysis then turns to the appropriate reparations in this case and the details contained within the chamber's reparation order. Final conclusions consider how the procedural and substantive elements of reparations in this case will be instructive to future cases that address sexual violence. Ultimately, key insights are offered on the modest contribution an appointed reparation expert can do in assisting a trial chamber in the reparation process.

A Nexus between Capital Adequacy and Profitability in the Nigerian Deposit Money Banks

This paper examines the impact of capital adequacy on corporate profitability of selected Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX Limited) from 2005 – 2014. The paper is carried out based on the historical panel data analysis. To achieve this objective; an ex-post factor research design was employed. Descriptive statistics as well as fixed-effect and random-effect Generalized Least Square (GLS) regression techniques were used as tools of data analysis. The paper made a modest contribution to the existing body of knowledge as most of the studies done in Nigeria and at international arena were not looking at the regulatory standards or benchmark to assess the capital adequacy and its impact on the profitability performance of banks. However, the bases used to evaluate the impact of capital adequacy on the profitability at times vary with the regulatory rating standards. The findings established that capital adequacy has insignificant positive effect on the DMBs’ profitability proxies represented by ROA and ROE. It was concluded that capital adequacy does not have significant impact on the profitability of the listed DMBs in Nigeria. The paper recommends that DMBs should ensure strict compliance with the benchmark for capital adequacy set by both the CBN and the Basel since they go a long way in improving their performance.

Indices De Minéralisations En Or Dans La Province Panafricaine Du Sud Maradi (Sud Niger)

Le socle du Sud Maradi (Sud Niger) correspond à l’extrémité Nord du bouclier Bénino-Nigérian, appartenant à la zone mobile panafricaine à l’Est du Craton Ouest-Africain. Cette étude apporte une modeste contribution dans la caractérisation géochimique des minéralisations aurifères de cette province métallogénique panafricaine. A cet effet, l’approche méthodologique mise en oeuvre associe le dosage géochimique de l’or par absorption atomique (Au Fire Assay/AA) pour les roches saines, et la séparation des pépites d’or par l’utilisation de la table à secousse pour les altérites du socle et les sédiments (placers et paléoplacers). Les analyses géochimiques ont mis en évidence l’existence de deux types de minéralisations: primaires et secondaires. Les minéralisations primaires de l’or sont à l’état disséminé (faibles teneurs de 0.005 à 0.017 g/t) mais des teneurs relativement plus élevées (0.006 à 0.017 g/t) ont été enregistrées au voisinage des zones de cisaillement du socle. Tandis que la minéralisation secondaire, mise en évidence dans les altérites du socle, dans les alluvions (placers) et dans les grès du Crétacé (paléoplacers) présentent des teneurs en or plus élevées (5 à 30 g/t), dépassant largement les teneurs des minéralisations primaires observées dans les roches saines du socle. Ce grand écart de teneurs s’explique par un fort lessivage du socle, qui aurait permis une reconcentration de l’or dans les sédiments. The South Maradi (South Niger) basement corresponds to the northeastern part of the Benin-Nigerian Shield, belonging to the Pan-African mobile zone, which is located to the east of the West African Craton. This study brings a modest contribution to the geochemical characterization of gold mineralization in this Pan-African metallogenic province. For this purpose, the methodological approach implemented combines the geochemical determination of gold contents by atomic absorption (Au Fire Assay/AA) for basement rocks and physical separation of gold specks by using the vibrating table process for basement alterites and sediments (placers and paleoplacers). The obtained results showed two types of gold mineralization: primary and secondary. Primary gold mineralization is in a disseminated state (low contents of 0.005 to 0.017 g / t) but relatively the higher values (0.006 to 0.017 g / t) were recorded near the basement shear zones. While the secondary gold mineralization, highlighted in basement alterites, alluvium (placers) and Cretaceous sandstones (paleoplacers) present higher gold contents (5 to 30 g / t) than primary gold contents observed in basement rocks. This large difference in values can be explained by a strong alteration of the basement, which would have allowed a reconcentration of the gold in the sediments.