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The purpose of this paper is to respond to Richard Slaughter's essay on “Is America the ‘land of the future’?”

The paper draws on a variety of literature and the authors' opinions to present the case in favour of Enlightenment values.

The paper finds that the USA is perhaps the most faithful political expression of the eighteenth century Enlightenment whose values have since been assimilated throughout the world. Enlightenment values are not beyond criticism, but that does not justify uninformed anti‐American attitudes.

The paper provides a counter‐balance to Slaughter's essay by arguing for a reasoned debate on the issues.

Community gardens are increasingly used as interventions during the resettlement of refugees and other migrants. Little is known about how garden programs might support their mental health and wellbeing. Given the links between climate change and forced migration, community gardens are especially relevant, as they can also support climate change mitigation. This study aims to document psychosocial outcomes of gardening programs for refugees and migrants, and mechanisms leading to these outcomes.

The authors searched major databases and the grey literature up to 2021, resulting in the inclusion of 17 peer-reviewed and 4 grey literature articles in a thematic, qualitative analysis.

Four consistent themes arose from the analysis: community gardening programs promoted continuity and adaptation (81% of articles), social connectedness (81%), overall wellbeing (95%) and a sense of meaning and self-worth (67%). The results suggest that community gardens can strengthen psychosocial pillars that are key to the recovery and resettlement of refugees and migrants. The land-based and social nature of community gardening may enable connections to the land and others, nurture a sense of belonging in the host country and provide a link to the past for those from agricultural backgrounds.

Further participatory action research is needed to develop guidelines for the successful implementation of community gardens by resettlement organisations.

This review indicates that community gardens can be effective psychosocial interventions as part of a network of services supporting the resettlement of refugees and migrants.

For centuries, people have raised money for many purposes, and funding projects utilizing the Internet began to spread in earnest after 2010. However, there is a notable lack of research on crowdfunding projects, especially those involving sports. Given this background, this study's objective is to compare whether motivational factors may work differently depending on crowdfunding type and to analyze the impact of such factors on investments.

This study was conducted using stimulation through artificially modified newspaper articles to measure crowdfunding motivation and investment intention. To clarify research questions, this study applied multiple regression analysis.

Findings indicate that philanthropic motives and interest in projects influenced the intention to decide on funding and often had positive word-of-mouth effects. In equity-based projects, philanthropic motives and a desire to be recognized acted as drivers for both behaviors. In reward-based projects, philanthropic motives determined investment intentions, and recognition motivation and interest factors influenced word-of-mouth intention.

This study investigated the motivations and consequent intentions for crowdfunding in the field of the professional sports industry, which had substantive future implications for the business of sports.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of social interaction ties, trust and business networks in the acquisition of foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge. It also assesses the effect of these types of knowledge on small and medium enterprises’ (SME) export performance. Furthermore, this study determines the moderating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between foreign business knowledge, foreign institutional knowledge and export performance.

This study used a survey research design using data from nontraditional SME exporters in Ghana. There were 257 respondents who were employees (managers/owners) of SMEs in Ghana. The model was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Social interaction ties, trust and business networks have a significant effect on the acquisition of foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge. Furthermore, foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge have a significant positive effect on export performance. The path between foreign business knowledge and export performance is also moderated by absorptive capacity. However, the moderating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between foreign institutional knowledge and export performance is not significant.

This study uses social capital to explain how SMEs acquire foreign business knowledge and foreign institutional knowledge, and how both affect SMEs’ export performance. Furthermore, it tests the moderating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between foreign business knowledge, foreign institutional knowledge and export performance.

The current study examines the prevalence, perceived effectiveness, and potential antecedents (e.g. departmental culture) of law enforcement agencies in collaborating with probation and parole agencies. Specifically, the study reveals how the leaders (i.e. police chief, sheriff) in law enforcement view police-community corrections partnerships.

Data were collected from a state-wide survey of all sheriffs’ offices and a random sample of municipal police departments in Texas.

Findings indicated information sharing and specialized enforcement partnerships were the most common partnership types, partnerships were more common with adult and juvenile probation than with adult parole, and partnerships remain predominantly informal. Finally, police chiefs/sheriffs in the departments with a culture supportive of offender reentry were more likely to support and engage in partnerships with adult/juvenile probation and adult parole agencies.

Even without formal programs, it seems that police-probation/parole partnerships are, in one form or another, practically inevitable. The positive evaluation of law enforcement personnel leaves room for hope for expansions of such partnerships in the future.

The legalization of same-sex marriage changed the parenting landscape for LGBTQ parents in a variety of ways. Parenthood is presumably different now that same-sex marriage is officially legal. Experiences among LGBTQ couples in the post-legalization of same-sex marriage era raise questions about the context of growing recognition and cultural acceptance of same-sex relationships. I conducted in-depth interviews with LGBTQ parents to learn how they navigate parenting and the construction of parenting roles in the context of a society that has legalized same-sex marriage, yet still is rooted in heteronormative notions of family and parenthood. Specifically, I ask: How do LGBTQ couples construct and make sense of their roles as parents, particularly within the contemporary context of the legalization of same-sex marriage? Understanding the contexts that shape LGBTQ parents’ experiences aids in not only understanding the lives of LGBTQ parents and their families better, but also developing a deeper understanding of contemporary parenting identities and experiences more broadly.

Smuggling represents a significant proportion of world trade. However, its nature and rationale are not sufficiently understood in comparison with those of counterfeiting, parallel importing and contraband trade. The willing or unwilling involvement of MNCs in smuggling is also poorly perceived. These issues are reviewed here as well as actions aimed at reducing smuggling's growth.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Malaysian managers acquire job competencies through self‐directed learning activities at their workplace. Specifically it aims to investigate what types of job competencies are required for the managers, how they learn to acquire those competencies, and whether the managers have the self‐directed learning attributes and capability to acquire job competencies by self‐directed learning activities.

The data were collected through survey. The survey adapted the Self‐Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) developed by Guglielmino. In total 238 respondents participated in this study.

The findings show that the respondents have identified communication, managerial, and job knowledge as the main competencies required for their jobs. Most of these competencies are acquired through on‐the‐job training, working as part of a team and self‐education. The findings also reveal that the respondents do possess the attributes of self‐directed learners.

The findings support previous research. Given the different cultural background of the Malaysian managers, their ways of learning are similar to those of Western managers. Future research can investigate how employees in other professions learn on their jobs and what other factors may influence self‐directed learning.

Given the emphasis being placed on the importance of work place learning, it is timely to advance a workplace curriculum by integrating the everyday learning experiences and guided learning strategy in the organisation, so that the employees' learning can be facilitated more effectively.

The paper includes the different cultural context of how Malaysian managers learn.