“Yo I am Superman, You Kiddo Go Home”: ritual impoliteness in Chinese freestyle rap battles

Introduced by African American communities, Chinese rap battle features an intensive ritual exchange of impoliteness, aggression, and vulgarity, but its linguistic realizations have not been systematically examined. Taking Iron Mic as a case study, this paper explores how advanced and novice rappers perform ritual impoliteness in Chinese underground rap battle competitions. Using mixed methods of discourse analysis and content analysis, we analyze the ritual impoliteness strategies in 51 rounds of Chinese freestyle rap battles. The findings show that advanced and novice rappers employed comparable instances of taboo language, threatening, and insults on their opponents’ superficial qualities and rap skills. Moreover, advanced rappers performed significantly more boasting and ritual insults on the others’ moral qualities. Their use of ritual impoliteness is warranted by hip-hop community norms of authenticity and creativity as well as Chinese social values of reciprocity, filial piety, and moral educators. This paper contributes to the research on Chinese ritual impoliteness and rap battle competitions.

What Can L2ers Tell Us about Codeswitching? Mood Selection in Spanish

An increasing amount of research shows that bilinguals that engage in codeswitching (CS) may show different patterns of usage and sensitivity to particular linguistic structures depending on community norms. Additionally, proficiency may play a different role in sensitivity to code-switched utterances depending on speaker background, as well as the structure investigated. In this study, we aim to examine how bilinguals not exposed to CS in the community rate CS vs. unilingual sentences involving mood selection in Spanish. In an online acceptability judgment task (AJT), 20 Spanish L2ers rated sentences containing verbs in the indicative and subjunctive mood in restrictive relative clauses manipulated for the specificity of the antecedent in two separate sessions: a Spanish monolingual mode and a CS session. The L2ers did not show evidence of a CS effect and maintained a mood distinction according to the specificity of the antecedent both in unilingual and codeswitched sentences. These results are in contrast with the results previously reported for Spanish heritage speakers (HSs), where a CS effect is attested in the loss of preference for the subjunctive in nonspecific relative clauses in the CS vs. the monolingual Spanish condition. Additionally, this distinction is found at both lower and higher proficiency levels. The differences between these speakers and HSs are consistent with data from previous research on CS effects on phonology and Det–N switches. We argue that exposure to community norms is necessary for the acquisition of patterns not related exclusively to the grammaticality of switch junctures (I-language).

Community norms and corporate philanthropy: the moderating role of women on board of directors

PurposeThis study examines how community norms, such as religious atmosphere and economic pressures, affect corporate philanthropic giving. Grounded in upper echelon theory, the authors further focus on how the women on board of directors (BODs) play an important role in the relationship between community norms and corporate philanthropic giving.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes a two-stage Heckman selection model to control the sample-selection bias. The final sample includes 8,566 observations for the first stage and 5,575 observations for the second stage. Then, by using a sample of Chinese listed firms in 2010–2014, this study establishes a strong and robust support for the hypotheses.FindingsThis study finds that religious atmosphere is significantly and positively associated with corporate philanthropic giving, whereas the relationship between economic pressure and corporate philanthropy is negative. Furthermore, women on BODs not only strengthen the relationship between religious atmosphere and corporate philanthropic giving but also strengthen the relationship between economic pressure and corporate philanthropic giving.Originality/valueFirst, the authors contribute to community literature by developing a subdivided perspective. The authors provide the first attempt to empirically investigate the hidden association between the two perspectives of community (religious atmosphere and economic pressure) and corporate philanthropic giving. Second, the authors contribute to the literature on corporate philanthropy by expanding the antecedents of corporate philanthropic giving to communities where firms are headquartered. Third, by capturing the multiple identities of women, the authors enrich the study of the influence of minority groups on corporate decision-making. The authors find that gender diversity on BODs strengthen the influence of community norms on corporate philanthropic giving.

Posthuman rights struggles and environmentalisms from below in the political ontologies of Ecuador and Colombia

In a decolonial determination to resist the modern ontological separation of nature from culture, political ontologies and posthuman legalities in Andean Community countries increasingly recognize natural and cultural forces as inextricably interrelated under the principle of the pluriverse. After years of Indigenous struggles, new social movement mobilizations and citizen activism, twenty-first-century constitutional changes in the region have affirmed the plurinational and intercultural natures of the region’s polities. Drawing upon extensive interdisciplinary ethnographic research in Ecuador and Colombia, the article illustrates how Indigenous, Afro-descendant and campesino communities express multispecies relations of care and conviviality in opposition to modern extractivist development through the concept of buen vivir. These grassroots collective life projects and life plans articulate rights ‘from below’ to support new practices of territorialization that further materialize natures’ rights and community ideals. Although human rights have modern origins, the implementation of third generation collective biocultural rights to fulfill natures’ rights may help to materially realize community norms, autonomies and responsibilities that exceed modern ontologies. The ecocentric territorial rights struggles and posthuman legalities we explore are examples of a larger emergent project of decolonizing human rights in a politics appropriate to the Anthropocene.

Conclusion

The Conclusion provides a comparison between the discourses of criminal justice described in the course of this book and other ternary models which have been suggested to explain the variety of possible responses to violent crime that are found in human societies across time and space. The outcomes presented in this work are interpreted in the light of current debates regarding the relative importance of nature or of nurture in influencing human reactions to violent deviance from community norms. It suggests that similar discourses of criminal justice might go through phases of resurgence, obsolescence, and change that can create totally different theorizations and practical applications, and even make them hardly recognizable.

Building Peace through DDR Programs: Lessons from Reintegrating Boko Haram Ex-Recruits in Cameroon

In the countries of the Lake Chad Basin, Boko Haram’s emergence has created major new security challenges for the region’s governments. Cameroon’s Far North region, the most populous in the country, is at the heart of these security issues. Since late 2020, Boko Haram has intensified attacks in Far North localities with assassinations targeting civilians, kidnappings, and looting in small towns along the Nigerian border. In response, the Cameroonian government has pursued a hardline strategy and militarized the affected localities. In addition to arbitrary arrests, prolonged pre-trial detention, prison overcrowding, and the death penalty are all sources of concern. This policy note outlines core findings from a case study of the Boko Haram ex-associates reintegration process in Cameroon. The note examines how existing community norms or mechanisms might be as useful as more standard approaches to disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) in addressing challenges presented by Boko Haram ex-associates in Cameroon.

Improving pandemic mitigation policies across communities through coupled dynamics of risk perception and infection

Capturing the coupled dynamics between individual behavioural decisions that affect disease transmission and the epidemiology of outbreaks is critical to pandemic mitigation strategy. We develop a multiplex network approach to model how adherence to health-protective behaviours that impact COVID-19 spread are shaped by perceived risks and resulting community norms. We focus on three synergistic dynamics governing individual behavioural choices: (i) social construction of concern, (ii) awareness of disease incidence, and (iii) reassurance by lack of disease. We show why policies enacted early or broadly can cause communities to become reassured and therefore unwilling to maintain or adopt actions. Public health policies for which success relies on collective action should therefore exploit the behaviourally receptive phase ; the period between the generation of sufficient concern to foster adoption of novel actions and the relaxation of adherence driven by reassurance fostered by avoidance of negative outcomes over time.

Community norms of the Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI) among gender minority populations

Purpose Representing the pathological extreme pursuit of muscularity, muscle dysmorphia (MD) is characterized by a pervasive belief or fear around insufficient muscularity and an elevated drive for muscularity. Despite evidence of heightened body image-related concerns among gender minority populations, little is known about the degree of MD symptoms among gender minorities, particularly based on Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI) scores. The objective of this study was to assess community norms of the MDDI in gender-expansive people, transgender men, and transgender women. Method Data from participants in The PRIDE Study, an existing study of health outcomes in sexual and gender minority people, were examined. We calculated means, standard deviations, and percentiles for the MDDI total and subscale scores among gender-expansive people (i.e., those who identify outside of the binary system of man or woman; n = 1023), transgender men (n = 326), and transgender women (n = 177). The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess group differences and post hoc Dunn’s tests were used to examine pairwise differences. Results Transgender men reported the highest mean MDDI total score (30.5 ± 7.5), followed by gender-expansive people (27.2 ± 6.7), then transgender women (24.6 ± 5.7). The differences in total MDDI score were driven largely by the Drive for Size subscale and, to a lesser extent, the Functional Impairment subscale. There were no significant differences in the Appearance Intolerance subscale among the three groups. Conclusions Transgender men reported higher Drive for Size, Functional Impairment, and Total MDDI scores compared to gender-expansive people and transgender women. These norms provide insights into the experience of MD symptoms among gender minorities and can aid researchers and clinicians in the interpretation of MDDI scores among gender minority populations.

Archetype Profiles of Military Spouses in Australia – Identifying Perfect Partners and Mean Girls

Military spouses are situated at the junction of the military and civilian worlds. They provide necessary support to military strategic and operational objectives and are also expected to perform a traditional spousal role of the ‘good’ military wife. This article demonstrates the existence of strong military partner archetypes which guide military community norms and expectations of spousal behaviour. In 14 qualitative interviews and five focus groups with Australian military partners, participants revealed many different, yet firm, sentiments related to identity, including fierce independence; a sense of belonging; self-reliance; a desire to help others; belief in fairness and pragmatism. The archetypes outlined in this article shape how partners see their role, and how they interact with other non-military partners and the military organization. This research delivers insights into optimizing military partner services to better support spouses through deployment, relocation and other military experiences.