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The book has generated a passionate dialogue-disagreement (mostly but not entirely) with the book. Dialogue-disagreement is based on challenges, disagreements and rebuttals between opponents, often belonging to different, even irreconcilable, paradigms. The goal of dialogue-disagreement is not so much to convince the opponent to change their mind but rather to critically examine and problematize the two involved paradigms: the authors’ and the reviewer’s. By taking the generated challenges and disagreements seriously, both irreconcilable paradigms can grow through their replies. Dialogue-disagreement gives the participants–opponents the gift of revealing their own paradigmatic blind spots, which are often invisible from within their paradigms. Dialogue-disagreement is exploratory and based on an agnostic relationship between frenemies, i.e. “friendly enemies.”

This is a critical book review essay of Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm (Cunningham, 2021).

The reviewer views Ian Cunningham’s Self Managed Learning educational paradigm as a hybrid of Progressive and Democratic Education, while the reviewer sees his/her Self-Education paradigm as entirely Democratic (and Dialogic). Elsewhere, the reviewer discussed and critically analyzed the Progressive Education paradigm, which generally involves channeling the student’s learning activism and subjectivity toward learning outcomes desired by an educator. It uses the educator’s manipulation of the student’s subjectivity to make them study what the educator wants them to study. In contrast, the paradigm of Democratic Education assumes that the educatee is the final authority of their own education. The educatee decides whether to study, when to study, what to study, how to study, with whom to study, where to study, for what purpose to study and so on. The educatee makes these decisions by themselves or with the help of other people at the educatee’s discretion and conditions. The reviewer charges that Ian’s Self Managed Learning paradigm is a hybrid of both paradigms, with the Progressive Education paradigm taking the lead and exploiting the Democratic Education paradigm.

The book presented a unique, innovative practice worth a critical analysis. The reviewer’s dialogue-disagreement with the book reveals a particular hybrid of Progressive and Democratic Education which is common to some innovative self-directed learning.

This research applies social identity theory (SIT) to examine how White diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professionals perceive their role and contributions to advancing workplace DEI.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to structure and guide the study, and data were collected from interviews with 16 White DEI professionals.

The SIT concept of social categorization was selected as a framework to discuss the findings, which were divided into two sections: in-group identity and out-group identity. The participants' in-group identities demonstrated how the participants leveraged the participants' Whiteness to grant the participants the influence and agency to perform DEI work. The participant's out-group identities revealed how the participants attempted to decenter the participants' Whiteness and unpack insecurities related to the participants' White identity and DEI contributions. Each of these findings has been associated with a specific role: leader, beneficiary, ally and pathfinder.

The practical implications of this study are critically examining White DEI employees' lived experience to develop an understanding of Whiteness while holding White people accountable for DEI efforts within workplaces.

Deeper and more honest conversations are needed to explore the phenomenon of how White DEI professionals enact and perceive the DEI contributions of the White DEI professionals. Therefore, this paper will provide further discussion on literature concerning White individuals engaged in organizational-level DEI work.

This paper aims to study recent approaches to peacemaking, particularly by Turkey and Russia, in a changing world and their implications for UN-led peace processes. The authors analyze the factors that allow parallel processes to UN mediation to emerge and discuss their influence.

The paper presents two in-depth case studies of mediation in Syria and Libya, where the UN, as well as Russia and Turkey, were actively involved in peacemaking.

The authors find that parallel processes to UN mediation emerge if the UN process does not show progress toward a negotiated settlement and other third parties have leverage over the conflict parties. However, whether these parallel processes pose a fundamental challenge to the UN-led process depends on how sustained the third parties’ leverage over the conflict parties is. If it lasts, it puts the UN in a difficult position to either participate in the parallel process and contain it but thereby also legitimizing it, or to abstain from participating but thereby risking to lose control over the mediation process.

Analyzing different approaches to mediation helps to better understand current dynamics of multiparty mediation, including an increased questioning of the effectiveness of UN mediation, and provides insights on how the UN may adapt to keep its relevance in a changing world.

The paper is based on original first-hand data gathered between 2018 and 2022 through more than 50 interviews with UN officials, negotiation team members, political and civil society actors from Syria and Libya, (former) state officials and experts from Russia and Turkey, as well as external observers.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding for the social inclusion of disabled performers in a developing country to create awareness and improve policies/practices.

The study employed qualitative methodology, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews, site visits/observations and review of secondary data.

The data from different respondent groups showed the social inclusion should be reviewed at three levels: the state, society and individual. The review of existing policies revealed the neglect of the state regarding disabled people in general and even more so in performing arts due to the lack of enforcement of national and international agreements. Findings indicate that social inclusion of disabled performers is a minor issue, especially in a developing country where access to basic human rights and needs may be difficult. Amidst such difficulties, performing arts is not seen as a priority compared to other needs of disabled people and performers.

Limitations include the limited number of disabled performers who could be identified and were willing to participate in the study. Those working in venues/public offices were also reluctant to participate. The greatest limitation was the broad lack of interest in disabled performers.

In Türkiye, studies on disabled people tend to focus on basic needs like health, education and employment. None, to best of researchers' knowledge, explore the social inclusion of disabled performers. This is an original study because it collects and discusses primary data on this topic, revealing the state-level negligence/oversight, the apathy of society and the degree to which an individual with disabilities must struggle to participate in performing arts. Consequently, this study shows the difficulty of developing social inclusion, equality and diversity in an emerging economy for disabled performers to raise awareness and present grounds for further legal enforcement. Moreover, implications allow for a global understanding of social inclusion that moves beyond a biased or privileged understanding/critique of disability centered on the developed world.