Global Publishing Opportunities in Gerontology: A View From the Editor's Desk

Global aging has proceeded at an unprecedented and accelerating rate. The aging of the population creates both opportunities and challenges for elders, their families, and society in general. Importantly, there is substantial variation in the effects of and response to global aging both within and across nations depending, in part, on prevailing cultural expectations and values, political and economic imperatives, and social and demographic characteristics. Thus, while some regions and countries have responded with innovative policies and programs to better enable the growing cohort of older adults to remain active and engaged in the community, other regions and countries have struggled with their response or barely begun to plan for the rising population of elders. This symposium assembles editors at five leading gerontological journals to demonstrate the role that peer-reviewed scholarship can play in disseminating knowledge that informs gerontological research, policy, and practice internationally. Editors include: Kyungmin Kim, PhD, Research on Aging; Jessica Kelley, PhD, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences; Edward Alan Miller, PhD, Journal of Aging & Social Policy; Julie Hicks Patrick, PhD, International Journal of Aging & Human Development; and Julie Robison, PhD, The Journal of Applied Gerontology. Each presenter will review the scope, content, and focus of their journals and the role and opportunities for international scholarship.

‘Every day is a challenge’: Expatriate acculturation in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a very small population of national citizens, so it relies on foreign workers who bring a range of cultures with them, resulting in a unique multi-cultural context. Unlike Western countries, such as the UK, Canada and Australia, workers are unable to permanently migrate to the UAE, so instead they hold temporary, expatriate status. This exploratory study focuses on the experiences of internationally qualified, expatriate nurses in hospitals in Al Ain, gathered by qualitative interviews. Twenty-one registered nurses participated in this study. The nurses faced challenges associated with language requirements and differing cultural expectations, and displayed limited acculturation, which compromised their ability to provide appropriate care for patients. The temporary nature of the work, cultural expectations, language difficulties and potential improvements are discussed. The findings have important implications for organizations that employ large groups of staff from overseas in all sectors. This article contributes to knowledge of expatriates’ challenges in the UAE and highlights the difficulties of working in a diverse environment, leading to a range of actions being recommended for managers.

“I’m Grateful, but Am I?”: The Exploration of Gratitude as a Complex Experience Among Malaysian Cancer Patients

Gratitude has gained attention among health researchers for its benefits among chronic illness. However, most of the studies were focusing on the positive effects, neglecting the complex dimensions of gratitude that can contribute to both opportunities and challenges for chronic illness patients. This study aims to understand gratitude among cancer patients in Malaysia from a sociocultural perspective. This includes understanding how cancer patients view gratitude and the impacts of gratitude throughout their cancer-battling journey. This qualitative study involved 35 cancer patients. A thematic analysis was done to analyze the collected data. Among the themes discovered were searching for meaning, meaningful experience, gratitude through the enrichment activities, and gratitude as religious cultural expectations. This study suggests that gratitude is an important experience for chronic illness patients. The ability to understand this experience is vital to support and empower the patients throughout their daily lives.

An affective awareness

<p>One of the most captivating qualities of the New Zealand wilderness is its temporality; season’s, weather, night and day, are multiple interconnected systems in flux. These temporal systems are intricately linked and determine the feel of the environment. We perceive this natural temporal environment through levels of experience that build from affects. Architecture is designed to resist this temporality, with lights, shelter, warmth and more. The limited engagement between interior and exterior also removes environmental conditions that have positive impact. The fixity of architecture, in its resistance to the uncontrollable, to the temporal flux inherent in the environment, limits the potential for wilderness architecture to relate to its constantly changing context. This thesis argues that non-static architecture creates a stronger connection between people, architecture and the natural environment. The success of architecture to emphasise this connection is analysed through the lens of affect as a preconscious reaction, which counters the social and cultural expectations of space. The study of affect provided a framework of understanding to inform the active designing. A fluid semi-permanent shelter is designed, constructed of a woven structural system responsive to both weather conditions and the occupants. The activities that occur within these structures maximise the non-static potential for movement and create a constant interaction with the landscape. The interplay between uncontrollable flux and controllable movement in the structures provides a challenging context that heightens the inhabitant’s awareness of the relationship between people, architecture and natural environment.</p>

An affective awareness

<p>One of the most captivating qualities of the New Zealand wilderness is its temporality; season’s, weather, night and day, are multiple interconnected systems in flux. These temporal systems are intricately linked and determine the feel of the environment. We perceive this natural temporal environment through levels of experience that build from affects. Architecture is designed to resist this temporality, with lights, shelter, warmth and more. The limited engagement between interior and exterior also removes environmental conditions that have positive impact. The fixity of architecture, in its resistance to the uncontrollable, to the temporal flux inherent in the environment, limits the potential for wilderness architecture to relate to its constantly changing context. This thesis argues that non-static architecture creates a stronger connection between people, architecture and the natural environment. The success of architecture to emphasise this connection is analysed through the lens of affect as a preconscious reaction, which counters the social and cultural expectations of space. The study of affect provided a framework of understanding to inform the active designing. A fluid semi-permanent shelter is designed, constructed of a woven structural system responsive to both weather conditions and the occupants. The activities that occur within these structures maximise the non-static potential for movement and create a constant interaction with the landscape. The interplay between uncontrollable flux and controllable movement in the structures provides a challenging context that heightens the inhabitant’s awareness of the relationship between people, architecture and natural environment.</p>

The Quest for Legitimacy: A Comparative Constitutional Study of the Origin and Role of Direct Democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand

<p>This thesis is a comparative constitutional study of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand. It reveals that the direct democracy systems in these jurisdictions came into being as a consequence of sustained periods of economic turmoil which coincided with widespread disillusionment with the performance of elected representatives. Constitutional reformers in these jurisdictions embraced direct democracy as a means of improving, not displacing, representative democracy. Their aim was to restore the legitimacy of their constitutional systems. The study also demonstrates that the majoritarian potential of the direct democracy devices in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand is limited. It is limited to the extent that is consistent with the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions, particularly those designed to protect minority rights. This reconciles the competing philosophical traditions on which most of the arguments for and against direct democracy are based. Provided minority rights are protected sufficiently, Jeffersonian-inspired advocates of direct democracy should not offend adherents of representative democracy, whether Burkeian or Madisonian in its conception. This thesis concludes that the direct democracy systems in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand are not the same, nor could be, given the unique forces that contributed to the formation and practice of constitutional law in these jurisdictions. They are different primarily because direct and representative democracy coalesced differently in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand due to variations in the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions. These principles vary because constitutional law in each jurisdiction is a unique and intricate confluence of law, politics, history, economics, and cultural expectations. This study also fills a void in the literature on direct democracy, primarily by documenting the origin of New Zealand's direct democracy system, analysing its possible role, and comparing it to the origin and role of the systems in Switzerland and California. In doing so, it provides a detailed examination of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland and California, topics that have previously escaped comprehensive treatment.</p>

The Quest for Legitimacy: A Comparative Constitutional Study of the Origin and Role of Direct Democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand

<p>This thesis is a comparative constitutional study of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand. It reveals that the direct democracy systems in these jurisdictions came into being as a consequence of sustained periods of economic turmoil which coincided with widespread disillusionment with the performance of elected representatives. Constitutional reformers in these jurisdictions embraced direct democracy as a means of improving, not displacing, representative democracy. Their aim was to restore the legitimacy of their constitutional systems. The study also demonstrates that the majoritarian potential of the direct democracy devices in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand is limited. It is limited to the extent that is consistent with the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions, particularly those designed to protect minority rights. This reconciles the competing philosophical traditions on which most of the arguments for and against direct democracy are based. Provided minority rights are protected sufficiently, Jeffersonian-inspired advocates of direct democracy should not offend adherents of representative democracy, whether Burkeian or Madisonian in its conception. This thesis concludes that the direct democracy systems in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand are not the same, nor could be, given the unique forces that contributed to the formation and practice of constitutional law in these jurisdictions. They are different primarily because direct and representative democracy coalesced differently in Switzerland, California, and New Zealand due to variations in the constitutional principles underlying representative democracy in these jurisdictions. These principles vary because constitutional law in each jurisdiction is a unique and intricate confluence of law, politics, history, economics, and cultural expectations. This study also fills a void in the literature on direct democracy, primarily by documenting the origin of New Zealand's direct democracy system, analysing its possible role, and comparing it to the origin and role of the systems in Switzerland and California. In doing so, it provides a detailed examination of the origin and role of direct democracy in Switzerland and California, topics that have previously escaped comprehensive treatment.</p>

‘Disturbing’ children’s YouTube genres and the algorithmic uncanny

Since late 2017, journalists, advocacy groups, and policy-makers have expressed serious concerns about popular genres of video content on YouTube that target child viewers but which are not child-appropriate according to extant definitions and cultural expectations. This article combines a discourse and thematic analysis of 54 news articles and opinion pieces about ‘disturbing’ children’s genres on YouTube with textual analysis of the two genres at the centre of this reportage. The analysis illuminates why the formal, aesthetic, and thematic qualities of these particular child-oriented YouTube genres trouble existing cultural expectations around children’s media. I argue that the genres addressed in the reportage share a key quality that I refer to as the ‘algorithmic uncanny’: common semantic and syntactic features that foster among reporters a perception that algorithms have played a key role in not only distributing the content but in shaping its aesthetic and thematic agendas.