Le mégaprojet de centrale au charbon Thar (Thar Coal Mega Power Project) est l’un des plus ambitieux du Pakistan. Il affectera directement les communautés du désert de Thar sur une superficie d’environ neuf mille kilomètres carrés. Plus de deux cent cinquante villages seront évacués pour assurer son succès économique. Le projet a d’ores et déjà provoqué des migrations, des spéculations sur le sol, l’usurpation de pâturages communs et le rejet des communautés. Les conflits dans la région revêtent deux faces. D’abord, (...) on constate des conflits entre les communautés autochtones, l’État et les fonctionnaires de la Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC). Ensuite, les problèmes intracommunautaires se sont transformés en conflits religieux entre musulmans et hindous, bien que les causes sous-jacentes soient environnementales. Cet article fournit une description critique des conflits, de l’usurpation de la terre, des processus de spéculation et d’accumulation dans la zone du projet. (shrink)

The study aimed to identify the role of administrative procedures and systems in enhancing the performance of the educational institutions in the Islamic University in Gaza. To achieve the research objectives, the researchers used the analytical descriptive approach to collect information. The researchers used the questionnaire distributed to three categories of employees at the Islamic University (senior management, faculty members, their assistants and members of the administrative board). A random sample of 314 employees was selected and 276 questionnaires were retrieved (...) with a recovery rate of 88.1%. The Statistical Analysis Program (SPSS) was used to enter process and analyze data. The results of the research showed a positive role for the administrative procedures and systems in enhancing the performance of the Islamic University from the point of view of the members (senior management, teaching staff and their assistants and the administrative body), where the relative weight of all the paragraphs (73.728%). The analysis of the results revealed that the administrative procedures at the Islamic University in Gaza are used to an acceptable degree. The relative weight of all the paragraphs is 70%. This indicates a relationship between administrative procedures and regulations and the performance of the Islamic University in the Gaza Strip. The study found that there was a good degree of approval from the sample regarding the administrative procedures and their relationship to the job performance. There exist a sufficient degree of powers to the deans and department managers to carry out their tasks, with the use of plans as control tools. And that there are rules and procedures provided for decision-making in the University Council. It also has full powers to manage the university to improve the teaching and learning environment. The researchers also recommended a number of recommendations, including the need to follow up on the procedures and systems of management and update them continuously in the light of changes that may occur and to ensure the existence of a strong system of electronic information systems within the university. There is a need to provide mechanisms for obtaining information about the surrounding external environment, and effective mechanisms to provide managers with the necessary information in a timely manner. The importance of providing channels of communication that enables staff to communicate information about any violations and breaches. The study also recommended the follow-up, review, procedures and administrative systems, and work to modify them in line with the mission of the university and the objectives that the university seeks to reach. (shrink)

Drawing from research on ethical leadership, psychological capital, and social learning theory, this study investigated the mediating effects of goal congruence and psychological capital in the link between supervisors’ ethical leadership style and followers’ in-role job performance. Data captured from 171 employees and 24 supervisors showed that ethical leadership has a positive effect on followers’ in-role job performance, yet this effect is explained through the role of psychological capital and follower–leader goal congruence, providing evidence of mediation. These findings have significant (...) implications for research and practice. (shrink)

IntroductionAcademic integrity is the expectation that members of the academic community, including researchers, teachers, and students, to act with accuracy, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect. Academic integrity is an issue of critical importance to academic institutions and has been gaining increasing interest among scholars in the last few years. While contravening academic integrity is known as academic misconduct, cheating is one type of academic misconduct and is generally defined as “any action that dishonestly or unfairly violates rules of research or (...) education.Case studyThe case study presented in this paper describes the elements of academic misconduct in three Middle Eastern countries. Four categories of factors were analyzed, namely personal, cultural traits, contextual, and institutional. Moreover, a comparison of factors of misconduct is conducted in the three countries in order to examine how different learning environments and cultures can affect academic cheating. The study also investigates the role of teachers and administration system in enforcing integrity policy in educational institutes.Discussion and evaluationAn evaluation of the main causes of cheating and plagiarism among students in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan is conducted by analyzing students’ response to a 20 questions survey. The nonparametric Dunn’s statistical analysis is performed to compare the variance and frequency of factors that may affect academic integrity. The significant results are reported in terms of the Krushal F statistic and p-value < 0.05. The evaluation was a useful process that demonstrated the main factors affecting academic integrity in the three countries.ConclusionSurvey results show that the role of individual social-demographic and culture factors are significant for predicting misconduct in Saudi Arabia and Egypt but not in Jordan. Most students blamed their misconduct on laziness and willingness to achieve higher education performance. Students are more likely to cheat and plagiarize because they lack the ability or information to tackle assignments. Results illustrate that the cultural impact can be a significant factor in academic misconduct. Integrity policies and the level, at which they have been applied, have a large impact on student attitudes towards cheating and their academic misconduct. (shrink)

The aim of the research is to identify the relationship between the performance criteria and the achievement of the objectives of supervision which is represented in the performance of the job at the Islamic University in Gaza Strip. To achieve the objectives of the research, the researchers used the descriptive analytical approach to collect information. The questionnaire consisted of (22) paragraphs distributed to three categories of employees of the Islamic University (senior management, faculty members, their assistants and members of the (...) administrative board). A random sample of 314 employees was selected, 276 responses were retrieved with a return rate of 88.1%. The SPSS program was used to enter, process, and analyze the data. The results of the study showed a positive relationship between the performance criteria and the achievement of the control objectives represented by the job performance in the Islamic University from the point of view of the members (senior management, faculty and their assistants and the administrative board). The researchers also recommended a number of recommendations, including the provision of an appropriate level of control system components today through the continuous updating and development of performance standards and the need to provide the necessary physical and financial resources to continue the development and achievement within the university. Expand the development of technology in the various activities of the university through the construction of a complete and integrated system to support the control systems in the university to suit its size. The researchers also recommended the follow-up, review of the performance standards and work to modify them in line with the mission of the university and the goals that the university seeks to reach. (shrink)

Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198, Islamic religious philosopher from Spain.

Ashraf H. A. Rushdy examines gratitude as a philosophical concept. In the first half of the book, he outlines its history and significance in western philosophical history, specifically in classical antiquity, the early modern era, and the Enlightenment. The second half of the book is focused on contemporary meanings of gratitude, as a sentiment, action, and disposition: how we feel grateful, act grateful, and cultivate grateful being. Rushdy argues that gratitude is a virtue that we practice in moral recognition (...) of our dependency and connectedness with our families, friends, communities, environments, and universe. (shrink)

The pursuit of knowledge has remained perennial since mankind's earliest days. A born thinker, philosopher, scientist, and discoverer, man has addressed many questions at the very center of life. In attempting to answer such questions, thinkers and philosophers have set forth many convincing (and conflicting) hypotheses, but all agree that achieving knowledge is the route to answering them. In Introduction to World Philosophies: A Chronological Progression, Mirza I. Ashraf describes perplexing philosophies in a simple style. He presents the central (...) ideas of prominent philosophers of the East and West from Zoroaster and Thales to Foucault and Derrida. He attempts to show that without these mentors of societies and civilizations, mankind would never have become what it is today and would not realize its potential for tomorrow. At a time in world history when the global exchange of information is often instantaneous, Ashraf's detailed presentations lead us toward a unified understanding of thought and culture. At this juncture, when the subject of world religions, traditions, and ideologies is at the heart of so much bitterness, these thinkers encourage us to think globally and generate a common approach to humankind's philosophical quest. (shrink)

Public apologies have become increasingly common scenes and representative moments in what appears to be a global process of forgiveness. The apology-forgiveness dynamic is familiar to all of us, but what do these rituals of atonement mean when they are applied to political and historical events? In his timely, topical, and incisive book A Guilted Age, Ashraf Rushdy argues that the proliferation of apologies by politicians, nations, and churches for past events—such as American slavery or the Holocaust—can be understood (...) as a historical phenomenon. In our post–World War II world, Rushdy claims that we live in a “guilted age.” A Guilted Age identifies the two major forms of apologies—political and historical—and Rushdy defines the dynamics and strategies of each, showing how the evolution of one led to the other. In doing so, he reveals what apology and forgiveness do to the past events they respectively apologize for and forgive—and what happens when they fail. (shrink)

A training physician has his first interaction with a pharmaceutical representative during medical school. Medical students are often provided with small gifts such as pens, calendars and books, as well as free lunches as part of drug promotion offers. Ethical impact of these transactions as perceived by young medical students has not been investigated in Pakistan before. This study aimed to assess the association of socio-demographic variables with the attitudes of medical students towards pharmaceutical companies and their incentives.

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has badly affected the social, physical, and emotional health of workers, especially those working in the healthcare sectors. Drawing on social exchange theory, we investigated the effects of participative leadership on employees’ workplace thriving and helping behaviors among frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we examined the moderating role of a leader’s behavioral integrity in strengthening the relationship between participative leadership, and employees’ workplace thriving and helping behaviors. By using a two-wave time-lagged design and (...) data collected from 244 healthcare workers, a moderated hierarchal regression was implemented to test the proposed hypotheses. As hypothesized, participative leadership predicted employees’ workplace thriving and helping behaviors. The leader’s behavioral integrity strengthened the relationship between participative leadership and employees’ thriving and moderated the relationship between participative leadership helping behaviors. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed. (shrink)

The present study is a differential study that describes the nature of the relationship between cooperation and altruistic behavior in a sample of gifted adolescents in three universities in Egypt and Kuwait University. It also identified the differences between males/females, and senior students/junior students in both cooperation and altruism. A total of 237 gifted adolescents—with average age 21.3 ± SD 2.6 years—from three Egyptian universities: Alexandria University, Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, and Suez University, and Kuwait University, were involved in (...) this study. Measures used in the study include the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, Generative Altruism Scale, and The Cooperative/Competitive Strategy Scale. Results revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between altruism and cooperation among gifted adolescents. Also, findings show that there are statistically significant differences between males and females in both altruism and cooperation. In addition, there are differences statistically significant between senior students and junior students in both altruism and cooperation in favor of senior students. It is recommended that altruism and cooperation intervention-based programs should be designed to increase the adaptive behaviors of adolescents. (shrink)

Background: Lower limb spasticity after stroke is common that can affect the balance, increase the risk of falling, and reduces the quality of life.Objective: First, evaluate the effects of spasticity severity of ankle plantar flexors on balance of patients after stroke. Second, to determine the relationship between the spasticity severity with ankle proprioception, passive ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, and balance confidence.Methods: Twenty-eight patients with stroke based on the Modified Modified Ashworth Scale were divided into two groups: High Spasticity Group (...) or a Low Spasticity Group. The MMAS scores, Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Questionnaire, postural sway of both affected and non-affected limbs under the eyes open and eyes closed conditions, timed up and go test, passive ankle dorsiflexion ROM, and ankle joint proprioception were measured.Results: The ankle joint proprioception was significantly better in the LSG compared to the HSG. No significant differences were found between the LSG and HSG on all other outcome measures. There were no significant relationships between the spasticity severity and passive ankle dorsiflexion ROM, and balance confidence.Conclusion: The severity of ankle plantar flexor spasticity had no effects on balance of patients with stroke. However, the ankle joint proprioception was better in patients with low spasticity. Our findings suggest that the balance is affected regardless of the severity of the ankle plantar flexor spasticity in this group of participants with stroke. (shrink)

With the increasing prevalence of Internet usage, Internet-Delivered Psychological Treatment (IDPT) has become a valuable tool to develop improved treatments of mental disorders. IDPT becomes complicated and labor intensive because of overlapping emotion in mental health. To create a usable learning application for IDPT requires diverse labeled datasets containing an adequate set of linguistic properties to extract word representations and segmentations of emotions. In medical applications, it is challenging to successfully refine such datasets since emotion-aware labeling is time consuming. Other (...) known issues include vocabulary sizes per class, data source, method of creation, and baseline for the human performance level. This paper focuses on the application of personalized mental health interventions using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and attention-based in-depth entropy active learning. The objective of this research is to increase the trainable instances using a semantic clustering mechanism. For this purpose, we propose a method based on synonym expansion by semantic vectors. Semantic vectors based on semantic information derived from the context in which it appears are clustered. The resulting similarity metrics help to select the subset of unlabeled text by using semantic information. The proposed method separates unlabeled text and includes it in the next active learning mechanism cycle. Our method updates model training by using the new training points. The cycle continues until it reaches an optimal solution, and it converts all the unlabeled text into the training set. Our in-depth experimental results show that the synonym expansion semantic vectors help enhance training accuracy while not harming the results. The bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture with an attention mechanism achieved 0.85 Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC curve) on the blind test set. The learned embedding is then used to visualize the activated word's contribution to each symptom and find the psychiatrist's qualitative agreement. Our method improves the detection rate of depression symptoms from online forum text using the unlabeled forum texts. (shrink)

Early in the year 2000, Paul Mendes-Flohr suggested to me that we invite Paul Ricœur to Jerusalem to engage in discussions with the researchers of the Rosenzweig Centre. At the time, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Maria Diemling, and I were participating in a Sonderforschungsbereich on Jewish and Christian thought, in collaboration with Bonn University. We considered that Ricœur's work on hermeneutics and his studies of history and memory coupled with his interest in the philosophy of religion had much in common with our (...) research. After corresponding with Ricœur, I traveled to Paris, to Ricœur's residence in the community of the Murs Blancs in order to prepare the symposium. Ricœur had just finished his book La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli and he suggested that we base our work in the planned meeting in Jerusalem on the second section of the book. He said that he was exhausted and felt empty, after completing the manuscript. Nonetheless, his conversation was animated, touching on geo-political aspects of the war in what was formerly Yugoslavia and speculating on the reasons why armed conflict often originated and spread from the Balkans. Ricœur had given a paper to the research group of the Rosenzweig Centre, at the invitation of Stéphane Mosès, in December 1994. He was excited about coming to Jerusalem. I returned to Jerusalem with a typescript of the section of the book we were to discuss, and we prepared for the meeting in regular sessions of the research group. (shrink)

I Kinds of Time The following remarks concern the question of time in Walter Benjamin's thought on ethics and justice. This theme is intimately connected to his attempt to locate the idea of human action beyond the confines of the subject conceived as the underlying instance to which the will is attributed. His thought in this area is exploratory. In Benjamin's discussions and correspondence with Gershom Scholem, he experiments with ideas deriving from Jewish thought in order to create a locus (...) for his understanding of the ways in which the human being is inserted into the order of justice. It is not prejudicial to the seriousness of this attempt if one notes that this is also partly what was at work in Benjamin's relation to the ideas espoused by Brecht and Adorno. Yet it is above all in the thought broached in the discussions and correspondence with Scholem, in the years preceding the publication of the article “Zur Kritik der Gewalt” in 1921, that Benjamin takes the major steps in his meditation on justice as an order of being. In his essays “Zwei Gedichte von Friedrich Hölderlin” and “Über die Sprache des Menschen und über Sprache überhaupt” of 1914 and 1916 respectively, Benjamin works out the main features of the displacement of the centre of the literary work of art and of language from the subject to the world, to essences, and, in the latter case, to God. In fragments and essays following these first major formulations of his thought, he develops the views on justice that were to find a radical expression in his text “Zur Kritik der Gewalt”. It is not fortuitous that in one of these fragments, “Zur Bedeutung der Zeit in der moralischen Welt”, which probably dates from 1920/21, he employs the image of the storm to evoke the working of God's forgiveness in history. The image was to return in an enigmatic passage in the ninth of his “Geschichtsphilosophische Thesen” of 1940. (shrink)

The commodity market plays a vital role in boosting the economy. Investors make decisions based on market knowledge and ignore cognitive biases. These cognitive biases or judgment errors have a significant effect on investment decisions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on decision-making. In addition, optimism bias and risk perception are the intervening variables between emotional intelligence and decision-making. So, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by examining the mediating role of optimism bias (...) and risk perception. The data were collected from the respondents of the commodity market and the 370 questionnaires were distributed among the investors, of which 337 respondents gave their feedback. The convenience base sampling technique is used due to the easy access of respondents, time factor, and cost factor. Data entered into the SPSS Statistics Version 26 and PROCESS macro model 6 were used for serial mediation. AMOS was used for the validity and model-fit analysis. The results of this study aligned with the literature that there is a significant effect of emotional intelligence on decision-making. It also observed that optimism bias has a positive effect on decision-making. The finding of this study will be helpful for the brokers, the government, and especially the investors. This study also proposed that future studies on the stock exchange and real estate market comparative analysis can be conducted. (shrink)

Islamic equity funds are subject to the screening criteria for stock selection imposed by the principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Equities must pass three basic screens: revenue source, business activity, and financial factors to be included in an Islamic fund. However, screening criteria are not universal especially for the financial factors. One can use financial ratios based on either the book-value of total assets or the market-value of equity for screening of stocks. This may not only result in a different portfolio (...) composition but also entail diverse rebalancing and monitoring costs. The performance of 29 Islamic equity indices versus conventional indices from four major international index providers using different Shari’ah screening criteria are analyzed in a single as well as in a multi-equation framework. The use of a multi-equation framework has the added advantage of utilizing the information content of different screening criteria adopted by different index providers. The empirical findings suggest that the difference in screening criteria does not significantly affect the performance of IEIs. Returns deviation, if any, stems from the relative riskiness of the IEI as compared with the relevant benchmark. Work needs to done to streamline the quantitative screening criteria to avoid confusion among the investing public. (shrink)

This study aims to identify the influence of knowledge management practices on the entrepreneurial and organizational performance with the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities and moderating role of opportunity recognition. Data were gathered from 486 entrepreneurs and applied a structural equation model to test the hypotheses. We found that knowledge management practices have a positive and significant influence on dynamic capabilities, as well as have a significant impact on entrepreneurial and organizational performance. Moreover, results indicated that dynamic capabilities partially mediate (...) in the relationship between knowledge management practices on entrepreneurial and organizational performance. Furthermore, the relationship between knowledge management practices with entrepreneurial and organizational performance strengthening by opportunity recognition. Further, implications and limitations were discussed in the paper. (shrink)

A faint smell of rosemary permeates the room; it is a soft and soothing smell. Weaving into it is another, not as sweet but an amiable one, and a few more sniffs will reveal that it is the comforting smell of a sweating body after a long, tiring walk. Small drops of sweat sit on the broad forehead of a young male figure sitting on a bedstead, quiet except for an occasional deep and very prolonged breath that inhales decades of (...) struggle and exhales uncountable moments of grief, tiredness, and regret. The man on the bedstead, wearing old jeans soaked in his sweat, is holding a black pen. His bare feet are neatly crossed in front of him; with a leaning hand, he unwillingly and reluctantly, but carefully, takes a note... (shrink)

Research on the base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) approach and the associated business case for deprived participants in informal markets now appears frequently in a range of business ethics and management-related journals. The present analysis of how supply chain management (SCM) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) concepts are habitually used in base-of-the-pyramid research serves to strengthen the theoretical foundation of BoP research by addressing the related business case. Based on a content analysis of BoP papers published in English-speaking peer-reviewed journals between 2000 (...) and 2014 from the Web of Science database, this literature review comprehends existing research in the context of established SCM and SSCM frameworks, using both frequency and contingency analyses. The frequency analysis indicates that supply chain management and sustainable supply chain management [(S)SCM] constructs regularly discussed in the BoP literature include supplier integration, strategic purchasing, decommoditization, long-term relationship and enhanced communication among supply chain actors. The identified contingencies reflect linkages between BoP research and (S)SCM constructs. The highest number of links was found between the SCM constructs of strategic purchasing and long-term relationship and the SSCM constructs of supplier integration and communication and coordination with suppliers. These can be regarded as the most crucial (S)SCM constructs in the BoP business environment. This analysis facilitates the development of future research propositions at this intersection, including the use of tools from (S)SCM theories to evaluate BoP propositions and projects. Granted the limited range of BoP-related papers analyzed, the findings provide a coherent understanding of (S)SCM practices crucial to the functioning of BoP markets and why they matter, so contributing to the related ethical rationale. These findings will be of use to researchers and practitioners alike for the formulation of business development strategies and their subsequent implementation in informal market economies. (shrink)

The mathematical model of physical problems interprets physical phenomena closely. This research work is focused on numerical solution of a nonlinear mathematical model of fractional Maxwell nanofluid with the finite difference element method. Addition of nanoparticles in base fluids such as water, sodium alginate, kerosene oil, and engine oil is observed, and velocity profile and heat transfer energy profile of solutions are investigated. The finite difference method involving the discretization of time and distance parameters is applied for numerical results by (...) using the Caputo time fractional operator. These results are plotted against different physical parameters under the effects of magnetic field. These results depicts that a slight decrease occurs for velocity for a high value of Reynolds number, while a small value of Re provides more dominant effects on velocity and temperature profile. It is observed that fractional parameters α and β show inverse behavior against u y, t and θ y, t. An increase in volumetric fraction of nanoparticles in base fluids decreases the temperature profile of fractional Maxwell nanofluids. Using mathematical software of MAPLE, codes are developed and executed to obtain these results. (shrink)

Ḥuqūq al-Islām.--Ḥuqūq al-vālidain.--Ādāb al-maʻ̄ashirat.--Ag̲h̲lāt̤ al-ʻulūm.

Objective: The global outbreak of COVID-19 has greatly affected individual's lives around the world and resulted in various negative psychological consequences. During the pandemic, reflection on and attention to COVID-19 may help in dealing with its symptomology but frequent and persistent thoughts about the situation can be unhealthy. The present study examined the direct and indirect associations between obsession concerning COVID-19, psychological distress, life satisfaction, and meaning in life.Design: This mediation study presents a primary analysis of normative data collected after (...) the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Pakistan. Parametric bootstrapping was used to test the mediation models of subjective well-being, the extent of the effect, and meaning in life as parallel and serial mediators concerning the associations between COVID-19 obsession and psychological distress measures.Setting: A sample of 1,002 adults were recruited utilizing an online survey between April to May 2020. They were aged between 19 and 45 years and normalized on population characteristics.Results: Two out of three mediators in parallel mediation fully mediated the relationship between obsession and psychological distress illustrating that high-level obsessions were associated with low levels of satisfaction with life and presence of meaning in life and search for meaning in life. Psychological distress is likely to decrease in the presence of a high level of satisfaction with life and meaning. Moreover, satisfaction with life and search for meaning in life significantly mediated the association between COVID-19 obsession.Conclusion: The present study showed that life satisfaction and search for meaning in life may play a significant role in decreasing psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

Social robots are expected to take over a significant number of jobs in the coming decades. The present research provides the first systematic evaluation of occupation suitability of existing social robots based on user perception derived classification of them. The study was conducted in the Middle East since the views of this region are rarely considered in human–robot interaction research, although the region is poised to increasingly adopt the use of robots. Laboratory-based experimental data revealed that a robot’s appearance plays (...) an important role in the perception of its capabilities and preference for it to perform a particular job. Participants showed a preference for machine-like robots to perform dull and dirty occupations and humanoids, but not androids, to perform jobs requiring extensive social interaction with humans. However, other aspects of appearance than morphology determine whether a robot is preferred for a job irrespective of its perceived capability to do it. (shrink)

Presently, there is armed conflict in Darfur, Sudan. Armed conflict has adversely affected the social, economic and educational development of Darfur, Sudan. Purpose of this study is to know the impact of armed conflict on managerial behavior of the principals of secondary schools in Darfur, Sudan. In this study, the impact of armed conflict on performance of the secondary school principals was analyzed in perspective of their managerial behavior. Based on the findings of the study significant impact of armed conflict (...) was found on the managerial behavior of the principals. It was found that principals coordinated with the staff in activities of the school but were frightened and unable to perform their administrative and managerial duties freely and independently. There was communication gap between the principals, teachers and parents. The principals did not possess the skills to maintain school budget & finance properly. It was concluded that the principals need administrative and managerial training. Government of Sudan may establish academies of Educational Administration & Management to impart training to the principals of secondary schools and to take steps to control the existing armed conflict. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to philosophically examine how disinformation from state officials and politicians affects the right to access to information and political participation. Next to the more straightforward implications for political self-determination, the paper examines how active dissemination of lies by figures of epistemic authority can be framed as a human rights issue and affects trust patterns between citizens, increases polarization, impedes dialogue, and obstructs access to politically relevant information by gatekeeping knowledge. Analyzing European Convention on Human (...) Rights (ECHR) case law, the paper argues that human rights law provides some argumentative basis for extending individuals’ rights as epistemic and political agents towards a “right to truth spoken by politicians”. However, challenges in balancing a possible restriction of lies and assessing the real effective harm that comes from them remain, potentially leading to a vacuum of rights protection for less visible long-term harm to individuals and public discourse. In order to have a real chance at tackling the harmful consequences of publicly told lies from a human rights perspective, it is necessary to rethink the notion of harm to encompass more complex and abstract forms of politico-epistemic damage to individuals and the public. (shrink)

During the COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutions were closed, and students worldwide were confined to their homes. In an educational environment, students depend on collaborative learning to improve their learning performance. This study aimed to increase the understanding of social media adoption among students during the COVID-19 pandemic for the purpose of CL. Social media provides a learning platform that enables students to easily communicate with their peers and subject specialists, and is conducive to students' CL. This study addresses the key (...) concept of CL during the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing social media use among students in higher education. The relationship between social media use and students' performance is crucial to understanding the role of social media during a pandemic. This study is based on constructivism theory and the technology acceptance model. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the conceptual model using SmartPLS. The research findings indicate that social media plays an important role during the pandemic because it provides opportunities for students to enhance CL under the aforementioned situations. This study makes noteworthy theoretical and practical contributions. (shrink)

The article extends the critique of structuration theory from a critical realist perspective, in particular by demonstrating how its theoretical shortcomings are manifest in management accounting research. Examining of one of the most cited structuration-based accounting studies and other more recent structuration-based accounting studies, the article highlights what accounting researchers who have embraced a structuration lens may have ignored. It also demonstrates why accounting researchers could not get a better theoretical purchase out of structuration. We find that a critical realist (...) account provides a far more in-depth account of budgeting changes and is likely to avoid the problems encountered in using a structuration theoretical lens. The article has important implications for accounting researchers as it demonstrates that analytical dualism instead of duality has much better potential to offer deeper understanding of accounting changes. (shrink)