Digital Commons Network^™

Politics Of Maritime Security Governance: Institutional Fragmentation, Securitization And Community Engagement In Decentralized Border Area Of Indonesia, Suhirwan Suhirwan, Siswo Hadi Sumantri, Lukman Yudho Prakoso, Ahmad Gafuri Dohamid

Jurnal Wacana Politik

ABSTRACT. Decentralized archipelagic states face governance challenges in translating national security frameworks into localized institutional practices. This paper analyses the formalization of coastal community participation into maritime security governance in Batam, Indonesia through multi-layered political mechanisms. The study uses a qualitative case study design incorporating insights from securitization theory and multi-level governance frameworks. Data were collected between March and July 2025, comprising 18 semi-structured interviews, policy document analysis, mapping of institutional coordination, and field observations. The findings reveal a persistent multi-level securitization gap: national threat narratives, particularly those articulated in terms of sovereignty, have not been proportionally translated into regional …

Regulating Religious Coexistence : The Intricacies Of Interfaith Cooperation In Coastal Kenya, Erik Meinema

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Regulating Religious Coexistence offers a compelling ethnographic analysis of how Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of indigenous African religions negotiate coexistence in Kenya’s coastal region. The book conceptualizes religious diversity as a dynamic field shaped by multiple partly intersecting and partly conflicting models of interaction. These include the political secularism promoted by the Kenyan state and civil society organizations focused on interfaith harmony, forms of competition between religious groups, and pluralistic practices in which individuals draw on multiple traditions to meet spiritual needs.

Through a close examination of civil society initiatives funded by Western donors to foster peacebuilding and to counter …

Refereed Research - Indispensable Yet Not Fully Legitimate: Street Markets As Invisible Subsistence Infrastructure, Raji Srinivasan, Maria C. Merino

Subsistence Marketplaces

Street markets are key provisioning systems across the Global South, supplying fresh food, employment, and retail access absent formal infrastructure. Yet despite street markets’ functional indispensability to millions of low-income consumers, their legitimacy is chronically contested, affirmed by vendors and communities yet challenged by planners, developers, and state authorities who apply formal-economy criteria in evaluating them. We theorize this as a legitimacy paradox and ask what structural mechanisms sustain it? Using composite vignettes grounded in fieldwork, we theorize three mechanisms. First, visibility without recognition: street markets are hyper-visible yet excluded from cognitive templates of legitimate, formal retail. Second, asymmetric essentiality: …

From Monopoly To Orchestration: The Hilltop And Farm Youth And The Changing Organization Of State Coercion - The Israeli Case, Idan Yaron

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Drawing on more than a decade of ethnographic fieldwork – as a social anthropologist, studying the Far Right in Israel, on the ground, and through intimate and prolonged relationships with opinion leaders and rank-and-file activists – this essay examines the Hilltop and Farm Youth in the West Bank to reconsider Charles Tilly's influential account of state formation and the organization of coercion. It asks a simple but troubling question: why would a powerful modern state, fully capable of suppressing autonomous violent actors, sometimes allow them to persist? I argue that Tilly's theory should be confirmed, adapted, and amended. His fundamental …

From Disaster To Resilience: Developing Smart Settlements In The Himalayas, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s catastrophic 26 August 2026 Bhote Koshi–Trishuli flood should be understood not only as a humanitarian tragedy but also as a potentially major turning point in updating national settlement and reconstruction policy. Engineers and scientists have described the floods as a glacier–bedrock collapse that triggered an ice-rock avalanche and debris flow. As per the live updates on September 7, 2026, the total death toll was 1,355, and 4,996 people were missing (The Hindu, 2026). Indian and Nepali rescuers worked urgently to locate and rescue people buried under hydropower tunnels, buildings, mud, and landslide debris.

UN News reported on September 3, …

Authoritarianism, Hostility And Threat: An Analysis Of American Political Podcasts Surrounding The 2024 Presidential Election, Noah D. Cohen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Political rhetoric surrounding key events has seen sharp increases in emotionally affective speech, intergroup sentiment, and rhetoric unbecoming of democratic societies in recent years. Similarly, semi-democratic and ideologically driven speech has become increasingly normalized within an era of political polarization and hardline beliefs in modern media. Within this economy of outrage, sensational and largely unmoderated media formats, particularly podcasts, have become a mainstay of political information and discourse. This raises an important question: how does rhetoric surrounding political events construct intergroup sentiment and authoritarian rhetoric within political media, particularly American political podcasts? Further, given political podcasts’ growing social influence in …

Determinants Of Antenatal Care Utilization: A Community-Based, Cross-Sectional Study In Morang And Sunsari Districts, Eastern Nepal, Sunil Shah, Chandra Jha

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

This study examined the factors influencing antenatal care (ANC) utilization in the eastern region of Nepal, focusing on the Morang and Sunsari districts, with the aim of identifying key determinants affecting ANC uptake and assessing the extent of ANC service utilization among mothers. Using lot quality assurance sampling, a community-based, descriptive, cross-sectional design was employed, surveying 164 mothers who had given birth within the previous 12 months; data were collected from June through November 2023. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS, with descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and logistic regression. Findings revealed that 80.5% of respondents …

We Don't See Race, We See Blue: A Case Study Of Police Unions As Racialized Organizations, Sarahfina Aubrey Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

In the late 1960s, police began to unionize. Today, they are the most well-organized labor force in the United States, with 70% to 80% of sworn officers now represented by a union. Though it has been decades, little scholarship has developed about how police unions affect policing. Much of the research that does exist uses race-neutral frames to address an organization steeped in racial history. This study aims to address this gap in scholarship, in part, by introducing race as a motivation for and explanation of organizational output.

This research applies Victor Ray's racialized organizations theory to police unions. I …

Review Essay: The Original Sin Of Humanity, John Sniegocki

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Theology Of The People As Modernity’S Alternative: A Review Essay, William J. Collinge

The Journal of Social Encounters

In Modernity’s Alternative, Rocco Buttiglione presents the Argentinian theology of the people as an alternative to modernity as it has developed in Europe and North America. After an introduction, the first main part of this review essay discusses Buttiglione’s account of the development of the theology of the people and the major figures in it and how the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe marks the beginning of an alternative modernity. The second section considers Buttiglione’s parallel between Christian Platonists’ inculturation of Christian faith into Greek culture and Guadalupe’s inculturation of Christian faith into Mesoamerican culture. The third section …

The Honored Children Of Adam: A Muslim Reading Of Magnifica Humanitas In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Iqbal Akhtar

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Mountain Development In Nepal: Settlements, Infrastructure, And Economic Transformation, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

As Nepal urbanizes, expands infrastructure, strengthens local governments, and explores deeper connectivity with India and China, climate change is increasing floods, landslides, heat, and water insecurity. Rapid internal migration, rising disaster risks, youth outmigration, and dependence on remittances are also revealing the limits of conventional urban development, especially in the mountainous region. The central challenge for Nepal is no longer just to accommodate growing towns and cities, but to build settlements that are safe, productive, environmentally resilient, and capable of sustaining long-term prosperity.

This paper argues that Nepal's urban future must be guided by a new development paradigm centered on …

Sari-Sari Stores As Community Pharmacies? A Qualitative Exploration Of Sari-Sari Stores Selling Medicines In The Philippines, Melissa Louise M. Prieto, Gamaliel P. Galigao, Ana Rica S. Navarra-Cruz, Louise Gabriel R. Jimenez, Gideon Lasco

Medical Anthropology

Background and Objective. Despite laws prohibiting the sale of pharmaceuticals outside licensed pharmacies, sari-sari stores continue to informally sell medicines, bridging access challenges especially in remote areas. The study explores the roles and perceptions of sari-sari stores as informal medicine providers. Methods. The study draws on ethnographic insights from key informant interviews with fourteen (14) sari-sari store owners or tinderas, probing into medicines sold in sari-sari stores and their perceived effectiveness. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results. Sari-sari stores serve as informal yet critical points of access to common medicines for everyday illnesses, especially in remote areas where …

Transnational Indigenous Environmental Justice: A Distant Comparative Study Of Nepali And U.S. Environmental Policies And Counter-Archives In Technical Communication, Shankar Paudel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how institutional communication, state bureaucracy, and Indigenous sovereignty intersect within Rhetoric and Writing Studies (RWS) and Technical and Professional Communication (TPC). Current TPC research increasingly focuses on social justice; however, the field still lacks ethical frameworks to deal with the complicated dynamics of transnational Indigenous Environmental Justice Communication (IEJC). This study addresses this gap by examining how two distinct Indigenous communities - the Tharus of Chitwan, Nepal, and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Tigua Indians of El Paso, Texas - communicatively navigate, contest, and resist state environmental policies.

Grounded in decolonial Distant Comparativism, Mestiza Consciousness, Rhetoric of …

Vietnamese Grandparents' Caregiving Experiences For Grandchildren Impacted By Hiv/Aids: An Ethnographic Study, Lesley M. Harris, Nguyen D. Thang, Linh Thuy Nguyen

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This ethnographic study explores the caregiving experiences of grandparents in northern Vietnam who are raising grandchildren impacted by HIV/AIDS. Specifically, what is the process of skipped-generation caregiving in families affected by HIV/AIDS in Vietnam? Data were collected between 2009 and 2011 through participant observation and in-depth interviews with 26 grandparent caregivers and eight key informants. Informed by the Caregiving Career framework as a sensitizing concept and using constructivist grounded theory analytic strategies, the study identifies four interconnected caregiving phases shaped by cultural expectations, stigma, and intergenerational disruption. Through fieldwork and analysis, we found that grandparents drew from previous and current …

Scraping The Earth: Testing Ndvi As An Indicator Of Military Ground Maneuver Within The Israeli Invasion Of The Gaza Strip, Thomas A. Bergeron

LSU Master's Theses

The advancement of open-source (OSINT) and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) has allowed independent researchers to study human conflict in new ways, with tools that were previously reserved only for state intelligence agencies. In order to advance methodologies, researchers must continue to evaluate new tools to study war.  Valued for its accessibility and moderate spatial resolution, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is one such tool that has not been widely systematically tested for its use in an open-source GEOINT investigation of modern conflict. This study tests NDVI as an indicator of military maneuver by leveraging a mixed-method approach against open-source kinetic …

The Virtue Of Hope In Sports Through Spe Salvi And Its Role In Faith, Resilience, And Character Formation In Student-Athletes, Hansson G. Labisig, Arvin D. Eballo

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

Pope Benedict XVI, in Spe Salvi, presents hope as a transformative and redemptive virtue that enables believers to live and suffer differently, rooted in faith in God. He writes, “The one who has hope lives differently.” This study develops a theological-pastoral framework for integrating the virtue of hope into the faith formation of student-athletes within Catholic educational institutions, positioning sport as a genuine locus theologicus for Religious Education and evangelization. Employing the See–Judge–Act methodology, it draws from Spe Salvi, Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, and the Vatican document Giving the Best of Yourself, in dialogue with C. R. Snyder’s psychological theory …

Believing And Belonging: Americans’ Religious Practices And Their Trust In Government, Hwayong Shin

Weidenbaum Center Survey (WCS) Reports

Data from the Weidenbaum Center Survey (WCS) offer new insights into Americans’ religious and political lives by addressing two broad questions. First, how religious are Americans today, and how does religiosity vary across age and partisan groups? Waves 1–8 of the WCS, conducted between 2023 and 2026, are used to answer this question. Second, how are different forms of religiosity associated with trust in government, and do these relationships differ across age and partisan groups? To answer this question, this article leverages Waves 6–8 of the WCS, which included measures of trust in government, conducted between 2025 and 2026. The …

Patient Perspectives On Psychiatric Polygenic Risk Scores In Reproductive Decision-Making And Polygenic Embryo Screening., Lauren A Ginn, Amanda R Merner, Page M Trotter, Kaitlynn P Craig, Abigail C Martinez, Ana Lucía Battaglino, Dorit Barlevy, Daphne M Ayton, Takahiro Soda, Eric A Storch, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Stacey Pereira

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) estimate individuals' genetic risk for developing multifactorial conditions. Recent genome-wide association studies have enabled development of psychiatric PRS, which hold potential to streamline diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions. As individuals with mental illness often identify concern about passing on psychiatric conditions as a key factor in family planning, some may also seek to use psychiatric PRS in reproductive decisions like childbearing or embryo selection for in vitro fertilization. Despite calls for increased regulation, there remains no clinical consensus on the utility of psychiatric PRS in reproductive contexts. Therefore, we conducted semi-structured interviews of adults with …

Historicising Nyerere’S Presidency In The Nyakyusa Mythical Narratives, Ignas Fedeo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Julius K Nyerere, the founding President of Tanzania, held office from 1962 to 1985. Much has been written about Nyerere's presidency, with the literature generally falling into two categories: strong advocacy for his decisions, actions, and ideas, and pointed criticism against him. Using narrative and new historicism theories, this article examines the recreation of the history of Nyerere’s presidency in local narratives, specifically Nyakyusa myths. The myths were collected using the oral history interviews from Kyela and Busokelo districts in Tanzania. The Nyakyusa believe that Nyerere was endowed with immense mystical powers, some of which embedded in his stick and …

Labour Migrancy And Ethnic Stereotypes: Experiences From Mufindi Tea Plantation, Ca. 1920s To 2000s, Hezron R. Kangalawe

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

While tea plantations brought good fortunes to some parts of Southern Highlands in Tanzania such as Mufindi and Rungwe during the British mandate, its production sites became centres of ethnic contestations in relation to work discipline. The colonial and post-colonial enterprises labelled some ethnic groups as “reliable labourers” and others “unreliable”. This article, uses the tea plantations in Mufindi district, Iringa, to debate the labour question and ethnic identity in tea plantations between 1920s and 2000s. It argues that tea plantations were practical point of colonial stereotyping whose architects were anthropologists. Interviews in Mufindi tea plantations and factories, archival and …

Governance Success Factors In The Nglanggeran Sustainable Tourism Village, Indonesia, Dwi Kristanti, Hartuti Purnaweni, Ida Hayu Dwimawanti, Teguh Yuwono

The Qualitative Report

Our qualitative case study examines the dynamics of governance in the Nglanggeran Tourism Village, Yogyakarta—a recipient of various national and international awards for sustainable tourism. Through in-depth interviews with 15 stakeholders, field observations, document analysis, and focus group discussions, we identified five key interrelated factors in governance success: (1) community participation and empowerment, (2) transformative leadership, (3) multi-stakeholder collaboration, (4) adaptive strategic planning, and (5) integrated socio-ecological resource management. Our research's significance lies in analysing how these factors interact dynamically in specific socio-cultural contexts to produce adaptive and resilient governance systems. The findings contribute to a theoretical understanding of sustainable …

Data Governance In Local Government: Evidence From Spatial Data Initiatives, Maame Efua Q. Arthur

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

The adoption of modern digital applications and tools enables community development organizations to improve public services and community well-being. In response to the data surge, several local governments in the U.S. are converting spatial data into user-friendly geospatial products, including maps, dashboards, web, and instant apps. Research suggests that while these tools enhance operations for municipalities, they also increase public accountability and data transparency. However, developing data-driven tools is dependent on structured data governance practices that ensure data accessibility, accuracy, reliability, and security. Using the City of Bloomington, Illinois, as a case study, this study assesses the city's data-driven initiatives, …

Social Innovation In The Peacebuilding Sector, Michelle Helman, Phd, Katherine Ronderos, Mariafernanda Burgos-Ariza

Peace and Conflict Studies

Social innovation is an expanding practice in the peacebuilding sector. In this article, three peace scholar-practitioners reflect on our experiences as peacebuilders and consider the utility, tensions, and possibilities for peace and social innovation in theory and in practice. We draw insights gleaned through a focus group workshop with peacebuilding colleagues and highlight three case study examples from Colombia, the Philippines, and Kenya, each demonstrating the challenges and opportunities of social innovation in the peace sector. In doing so, we offer a reimagining of- and recommended action steps to engage innovation through a collaborative, feminist design approach. This article contributes …

Goddess In A Trash Can: Religious Ritual Disposal In New York City Public Parks, Zoe Oro-Hahn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Practitioners of Afro-Caribbean religions, including Santería, Vodou, Espiritismo, and Las 21 Divisiones, utilize the New York City Public Parks system to hold rituals, connect with spirits and ancestors, and dispose of religious remains leftover from trabajos (workings) and brujería (witchcraft). Utilizing photos from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, my thesis considers the religious, political, social, and practical rationale behind this phenomenon, explores the rituals occurring, and provides policy suggestions that balance religious needs of practitioners with the safety and wellbeing of New York City’s parks.

Critical Geopolitics And The Reconstruction Of Meaning: A Discourse Analysis Of The 'Terrorism' Label Applied To Hamas By Western Hegemony, Cahaya Mulyani Sakti, M.Hamdan Basyar

Journal of Terrorism Studies

The emergence of Hamas in 1987 cannot be separated from the configuration of modern colonialism and the continuity of occupation that shaped the political reality. Hamas’s early phase was rooted in socio-religious activities through education and community empowerment programs, before evolving into armed resistance against the occupation. The labeling of Hamas as a “terrorist” organization began in the mid-1990s in U.S. legal documents, which subsequently generated debate and gave rise to counter-narratives. This study employs the frameworks of critical geopolitics (Ó Tuathail & Agnew) and the Discourse-Historical Approach (Wodak) to analyze the labeling of Hamas as “terrorist” by Western hegemony. …

On The Brink Of Silence: Ethnographic Perspectives On Hunting And Forest Life Among The Awa Guajá In Eastern Amazonia, Uirá Garcia

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

The central theme of this article basically resides in the relationship established by indigenous peoples between their hunting practices and the forest. Indigenous ways of connecting ‘hunting’ and ‘forest’ necessarily pass through other modes of knowing, only marginally – if it all – dependent on vision. On the contrary, sounds, smells and even dreams are, for many South American indigenous collectives, more trustworthy indices than what the eye sees. This article divides into two parts. In the first, I set out the main ideas related to the anthropological study of hunting in Amazonia at a conceptual level. In the second, …

Making Noise Through Law: Indigenous Legal Mobilisation Against A Power Plant In “French” Guiana, Pierre Auzerau

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In so-called “French” Guiana, or Guyane, the Kali’na village of Atopo Wipi has fought for years against a hydrogen power plant being built on their land. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2024 in Guyane and Western Europe, where I collaborated with various stakeholders to support Atopo Wipi’s resistance to the power plant, my research focuses on the legal dimensions of the Kali’na’s struggle to protect their land. Specifically, this article examines how the Kali’na navigated different normative frameworks, including international human rights standards and French law, to fight the project. Through this analysis, I show how the …

El Amor En Los Tiempos Del Caucho. Pactos Matrimoniales Y Trabajo Coercitivo Entre Awajún Y Patrones En La Amazonía Peruana, Silvia Romio

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Este trabajo presenta un análisis etnohistórico de los cambios en la jefatura awajún del Alto Marañón a inicios del siglo XX, centrándose en sus relaciones de dependencia, poder y trabajo forzoso con los comerciantes mestizos, en su mayoría patrones del caucho establecidos en la zona. El ensayo describe la transformación gradual de las relaciones cotidianas con estos foráneos, quienes pasaron de ser simples aliados comerciales a convertirse en capitanes y, finalmente, en yernos-patrones mediante el matrimonio con una o más hijas del jefe indígena. A través de la figura del yerno-patrón, se produjo una progresiva incorporación del “blanco” a …

A Pedra Da Aldeia: Reativações Waiwai Entre A Antropologia E A Arqueologia De Longa Duração, Carlos Machado Dias Jr., Kanhera Renato Xerew, Alexandre Aniceto Souza, Jaime Xamen Wai Wai, Justino Sarmento Rezende, Claide De Paula Moraes

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

O artigo analisa um episódio ocorrido na comunidade waiwai do Jatapuzinho, na Terra Indígena Trombetas-Mapuera, envolvendo o encontro do professor Renato Kanhera Waiwai com um antigo Pote de Pedra encontrado às margens do rio Jatapuzinho durante um período de estiagem. A partir de uma experiência etnográfica conduzida pelo próprio Kanhera, os autores refletem sobre os efeitos cosmopolíticos, históricos e ontológicos mobilizados pelo artefacto, articulando antropologia, arqueologia e perspectivas indígenas em um exercício de escrita coletiva. O texto argumenta que o Pote de Pedra não constitui apenas um vestígio arqueológico, mas um agente ativo na reativação de memórias, sonhos, narrativas e …