Publications

This paper investigates the frequency of commentary pragmatic markers in Ghanaian and Ugandan Englishes, and their use across different text categories, using the Ghanaian and Ugandan components of the International Corpus of English. These markers, which are grouped into assessment, emphasis, evidential, hearsay and manner-of-speaking markers, are explored from a variational pragmatic approach. The results show that Ghanaian English users employ an overall higher frequency of commentary pragmatic markers than Ugandan English users. Ghanaian English users utilise more commentary pragmatic markers in private and public dialogues and printed writing than Ugandan English users, while the latter employ more commentary pragmatic markers in monologues than their Ghanaian English counterparts. The study confirms the influence of local African languages and cultures on the use of some English commentary pragmatic markers, thus contributing to the research on nativisation and pragmatic variation in these varieties.

The transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in universities is simply extending beyond instructional applications to include administrative and strategic domains in university management. This study aims to explore how AI could be integrated into university practices by addressing three core questions: to what AI technologies are being employed, which integration stages support their implementation, and what kind of ethical risks need to be considered for AI usage in universities. To respond to these questions, the researchers a meta-synthesis approach to qualitatively analyse selected studies. Based on a systematic search protocol, they selected 49 empirical cases from different parts of the world; then, analysed them using thematic analysis through data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. The findings were categorised into a three-layered framework capturing various purposes of AI usage, technical and institutional integration steps, and the components of ethical AI regulations in universities. The analysis shows that higher education authorities, university leaders, and techno-experts initially decide the purpose(s) of AI usage, regarding teaching, research, engagement, and administration. Then, as a structured roadmap, they can follow eight steps identified for the technical and institutional AI integration: 1. AI System Design, 2. AI Algorithm Development, 3. Data Management-Preprocessing, 4. AI System Integration, 5. Strategic Management Policies, 6. Operational Management Roles, 7. Curriculum-Pedagogical Design, and 8. Evaluation-Performance Monitoring. Lastly, ethical regulations could be organised combining sub-themes of Data Ethics, Algorithmic Ethics, Human-AI Interaction and Social Impact, Academic Integrity and Responsible Use, and Institutional and Managerial Ethics.

Research has revealed the increasing importance of social innovation ecosystems in catalysing initiatives that mitigate society’s grand challenges. However, there are still knowledge gaps in the realm of creating, nurturing, and governing digital versions of such ecosystems, which we term social innovation digital ecosystems (SIDEs). This study delves into the orchestration tasks SIDEs’ orchestrators may have to perform during emergence and development. To achieve this objective, we conducted an exploratory case study of an emerging SIDE in Brazil. The study contributes to the nascent literature on SIDEs by showing that their orchestration differs from that of conventional digital innovation ecosystems. Our findings suggest that emerging SIDEs rely on hybrid orchestration, in which digital infrastructures support mapping, visibility, and connection-building. At the same time, engagement, sense-making, and the design of collaborative initiatives remain strongly dependent on offline, locally embedded interaction.

Seit geraumer Zeit wird auf der individuellen Ebene unter dem Stichwort des lebenslangen Lernens Lernen zur Dauerveranstaltung. Ebenso lässt sich auf der organisationalen Ebene ein Wandel des Umgangs mit Wissen beobachten. Im Gegensatz zum hegemonialen Diskurs, dass in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft alle immer und fortwährend lernen (bzw. lernen sollen – insbesondere in Organisationen und vor allem in solchen, die extensiv mit Wissen hantieren), zeigt die genauere Betrachtung, dass hier eine differenzierte Betrachtung vorgenommen werden muss. Insbesondere mit dem Aufkommen gesellschaftlicher Wandlungsprozesse aber vor allem auch vor dem Hintergrund der Digitalisierung eröffnen sich nicht nur neue Möglichkeiten, sondern es entstehen auch neue Erfordernisse, in Organisationen mit Wissen anders umzugehen als bisher.

Insbesondere die Jugendzeit und die mit ihr verbundene sekundäre politische Sozialisation ist mit Blick auf die Entwicklung eines differenzierten Verständnisses politischer Strukturen, Prozesse sowie Werte und Inhalte eine bedeutende Lebensphase. In diesem Beitrag wird untersucht, inwiefern Ressourcen, Motivation und Gelegenheiten mit dem politischen Wissen von Schüler*innen der Sekundarstufe I zusammenhängen. Die Auswahl der untersuchten Bereiche und Konstrukte erfolgte dabei auf Basis des Civic Voluntarism Models. Für die Studie wurden die Daten von N = 1047 Schüler*innen der 7. und 10. Klassenstufe an Schulen in Nordrhein-Westfalen analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass in jedem der drei Bereiche einzelne Konstrukte mit dem politischen Wissen der Schüler*innen in beiden Klassenstufen assoziiert sind. Dabei wiesen besonders die Lesekompetenz, das kulturelle Kapital sowie das politische Interesse konsistente Zusammenhänge mit dem politischen Wissen auf. Die Ergebnisse unterstützen die Annahmen des Civic Voluntarism Models und dessen Anwendbarkeit auf das politische Wissen. Außerdem verdeutlichen die Ergebnisse die Bedeutung eines breit angelegten Ansatzes zur Förderung politischen Wissens in der Jugendphase.

Understanding the interplay between political participation and political efficacy is crucial for fostering democratic engagement. This two-wave panel study investigated the potentially reciprocal relationship between non-institutionalized political participation and internal and external political efficacy among adolescents. The study drew on a German sample of 444 students from Grade 7 and Grade 8 (wave 1: Mage = 12.94, SDage = 0.61; 46.9% female). It examined whether and how internal and external political efficacy are related to participation and whether participation, in turn, is related to political efficacy over time. Results revealed low stability for external political efficacy and non-institutionalized participation and moderate stability for internal political efficacy between Grade 7 and Grade 8. When students’ demographics were controlled for, internal political efficacy in Grade 7 was positively related to non-institutionalized participation in Grade 8, but no significant effects of participation on efficacy were observed. This study provides initial insights into the relationship between open democratic practices, like petitioning, protesting, and boycotting, and adolescents’ perceptions of political efficacy. Results suggested that the transformative potential of participatory activities may depend on specific conditions. The findings highlight the need for further research to explore these dynamics longitudinally and across different forms of participation.

Citizens’ willingness to participate in political and civic life is crucial for democracies. The Civic Voluntarism Model has frequently been used to explain political participation by emphasizing citizens’ resources, psychological engagement, and recruiting as important antecedents. While the model has received extensive support from cross-sectional studies among adults, we know little about its explanatory power for the development of adolescents’ willingness to participate. Thus, this study aims to determine whether and how adolescents’ resources (i.e., political knowledge, socioeconomic background, cultural capital), psychological engagement (political interest and efficacy), and recruitment (peers’ participatory attitudes, discussions, and school track) are related to the development of three types of willingness to participate (civic engagement, activism, voting) among high school students from Grade 7 to 8. For this purpose, we performed cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses with data from N = 444 students. Overall, our structural equation models indicated positive associations between the Civic Voluntarism Model components and willingness to participate, with considerable variation between the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. For the cross-sectional analyses, we found positive associations between political interest and all examined forms of willingness to participate. In the longitudinal analyses, we found that socioeconomic background was related to all forms of willingness to participate. The results for other factors varied depending on the type of political participation. Future studies should strive to systematically investigate these differences and inspect the specific interplay between factors. The consistent longitudinal findings on socioeconomic statues point to the need to counteract political inequality through measures such as civic education.

The unskilled and unaware effect, also known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, describes that low performers tend to overestimate and high performers tend to underestimate their ability and that on average low performers provide less accurate estimates of their ability than high performers. Based on data from N = 1047 students in Grade 7 (n = 613) and Grade 10 (n = 434), we examined whether the unskilled and unaware effect exists with regard to high school students’ political knowledge, whether the effect is different in Grade 7 and Grade 10, and how teachers’ behavior (i.e., cognitively activating and motivating teaching) affects students’ judgement accuracy and judgement direction. The results show that the unskilled and unaware effect exists in both grade levels. Furthermore, visual and statistical examination of the data suggest that the pattern of data is very similar in both grade levels. Finally, we further find that perceived motivational quality is associated with judgement accuracy, but also with overconfidence. Perceived cognitive activation is negatively associated with judgement accuracy. Through the usage of two-cohort data, this study applies a novel approach and bears important implications for research on the unskilled and unaware effect. Furthermore, the results regarding the teachers’ behavior provide important insights for educational practice in civic education.

Dieser Beitrag entwickelt eine soziologische Perspektive auf das Phänomen des Schwitzens. Statt es als rein biologische Reaktion zu verstehen, untersucht der Artikel, wie es zum Bestandteil und Effekt von Machtbeziehungen wird. In Auseinandersetzung mit dem Konzept der thermischen Gewalt (Nicole Starosielski) und dem „model case“ der Sweatbox wird gezeigt, dass der Gewaltbegriff an seine Grenzen stößt, wenn es zu alltäglichen Aushandlungsprozessen thermischer Machtbeziehungen kommt. Um den umweltlichen Charakter und die Materialität des Schwitzens denken zu können, wird Karen Barads Begriff der Intra-Aktion mit Blick auf thermische Phänomene kritisch diskutiert. Als ein spezifischer Modus der Intra-Aktion wird der Begriff der thermischen Intrasubjektivität vorgeschlagen, der auf die Machteffekte sensorischer Relationen zielt. Der Begriff beschreibt die prekäre Gleichzeitigkeit von Entsubjektivierungsprozessen durch Hitze einerseits und deren subjektivierenden, fixierenden Wirkungen andererseits. An historischen Beispielen werden die differenzerzeugenden Effekte des Schwitzens – u. a. seine Bedeutung für körperliche Arbeit, für vergeschlechtlichte Hygieneregime und rassifizierende Diskurse – herausgearbeitet. Derlei Machtbeziehungen wirken durch sensorische Umwelten, deren Bedeutung nicht zuletzt mit Blick auf die Zunahme von Hitzewellen an Brisanz gewinnen dürfte.

This special issue on what we call global green visions offers a vantage point for understanding global environmental governance in the Anthropocene through the lens of world order(s). Specifically, we suggest in this introduction that a variety of international and transnational actors craft green visions, thereby not only outlining what (un)sustainability means for them but also promoting distinct conceptions of future world order. In other words, ideas about sustainability are not politically innocent; instead, each explicitly or implicitly revolves around a particular conception of world order. The special issue bridges and complements existing work in international relations and global environmental politics by examining how the global green visions of various actors interact with understandings of world order, rather than merely acknowledging that claims about what is “sustainable” and “unsustainable” are contested. In fact, global green visions are contested precisely because they entail renegotiations of how to govern under the increasingly difficult conditions of the Anthropocene.