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This paper is a critique of Western modernity and the problems and promises of postmodernism in (re)liberating disaster studies. It criticizes metanarratives and grand theories of Western discourses to advance postmodern discourses in disaster studies.

This paper outlines a conceptual domain through which approaches of postmodernism can be employed to (re)liberate disaster studies.

Metanarratives and grand theories frame the scope and focus of disaster studies. But the increasing number and the aggravated impacts of disasters and environmental challenges in the late 20th and early 21st centuries are proofs that our current “frames” do not capture the complexities of disasters. Postmodernism, in its diversity and various meanings, offers critical and complementary perspectives and approaches to capture the previously neglected dimensions of disasters.

Postmodernism offers ways forward to (re)liberate disaster studies through ontological pluralism, epistemological diversity and hybridity of knowledge.

The agenda of postmodernism in disaster studies is proposed in terms of the focus of inquiry, ontological and epistemological positionalities, research paradigm, methodologies and societal goals.

The aim of this study is to investigate the highly dynamic cultural landscape relating to economically active Emirati women who are supported by government policy but may be exposed to some societal disapprobation.

Narrative methodology is used to explore how women respond to the perceived discord between their economic agency and enduring traditional norms associated with women.

Results indicate that a prevailing discursive mode within participants’ narratives is that the working woman is not at all a new phenomenon in their society but has always been a feature of Emirati history.

This study’s contribution to theory building is its demonstration of how traditional Arab Islamic values and modern state policy are being combined in a way that blurs the apparent dichotomy between tradition and modernity.

Between 1840s and 1940s, 27 occidental concessions have been created in several cities in China which represented difficult signs and memories for Chinese. Nowadays, these territories are experiencing a joint phenomenon of heritagization and tourismification which makes them experimental theaters for modern urban life and identity. Taking the former concessions of Tianjin as place study, the purpose of this study is to analyze the role of the heritage and tourism in the former concessions in city branding and more specifically the actors, approaches and products of this phenomenon.

This research draws on the comparison and analysis of two place studies in China. The authors base their analysis on semi-structured interviews in Chinese with previously identified stakeholders. In all, 20 individuals, including developers, public authority representatives, business owners, academics and conservation association members, were interviewed. This research was completed, updated and triangulated by content analysis of Web-based materials; official documents such as urban plans, guidelines and urban and tourism strategies collected during the fieldwork, as well as non-intrusive spatial observations of the concession and its various developments.

The results of this study show that the heritage in the former concessions has become an attractive tool for the city branding through tourism development, often led by the public actors with the participation of private entrepreneurs.

This study looks at the hybrid dimensions of the former concessions in China. It provides a better understanding of the co-action of heritage and tourism in the processes of territorial rehabilitation, which contributes to both the practitioners and researchers in this domain.

This paper aims to systematically unpack the ideal of organizational transparency by tracing the concept's origins in the era of Enlightenment. Based on a genealogical reconstruction, the article explores different transparency understandings in key areas of online public relations (PR) and discusses the opportunities and challenges they present for the field.

This is a conceptual paper that unfolds a genealogical reconstruction to uncover different transparency ideals of modernity. These perspectives are then transferred to the field of online PR to discuss their ethical and practical implications in the context of digitalization.

Claims for transparency manifest in three distinct ideals, namely normative, instrumental and expressive transparency, which are also pursued in online PR. These ideals are related to associated concepts, like dialogue, control and authenticity, which serve as transparency proxies. Moreover, each transparency ideal inherits an ambivalence that presents unique opportunities and challenges for PR practitioners.

Instead of an unquestioned belief in the ideal of organizational transparency, the paper urges communication practitioners to critically reflect on the ambivalent nature of different transparency regimes in the context of digitalization and provides initial recommendations on how to manage digital transparency in online PR responsibly.

The paper contributes to the vivid debate surrounding organizational transparency in the context of digitalization by offering a novel and systematic analysis of the multifaced concept of transparency while opening new research avenues for further conceptual and empirical research.

Drawing on the work of Niklas Luhmann, the paper argues that technology can be viewed as a self-referential system which is autonomous from both human beings and other function systems of society. The paper aims to develop a philosophy of technology from the work of Niklas Luhmann. To achieve this aim, it draws upon the systems-theory work of Jacques Ellul, a philosopher of technology who focuses on the autonomous potential of technological evolution.

The paper draws on the work of Niklas Luhmann and Jacques Ellul to explore the theme of autonomous technology and what this means for our thinking about technological issues in the twenty-first century. Insights from these two thinkers and researchers working in the Luhmannian sociological tradition are applied to remote work.

The sociological approach of Luhmann, coupled with Ellul's insights into the autonomous nature of technology, can help us develop a systems theory of technology which takes seriously its irreducibility to human functions.

The paper contributes to the growing sociological literature that thematizes the Luhmannian approach to technology, helping us better understand this phenomenon and think in new ways about what technological autonomy means.

The paper brings together the work of Luhmann, Ellul and contemporary researchers to advance a new understanding of technology and technological communication.

This article analyzes the relationships between different conceptions of time, socioeconomic development and cultural values.

We focus on three major aspects of time, namely, 1) duration, 2) orientation and 3) tempo. Furthermore, we draw on modernization theory to distinguish between agrarian/traditional and industrial/modern societies and their respective cultural values.

Analyses indicate that agrarian/traditional societies with cultural values such as collectivism, survival, religiosity and hierarchical structures are marked by subjective/cyclical/inaccurate, past-oriented and slow-paced conceptions of time. In contrast, industrial/modern societies with cultural values such as individualism, self-expression, secularism and egalitarianism are marked by objective/linear/accurate, future-oriented and accelerated conceptions of time.

This paper introduces an original conceptualization of the three dimensions of time – duration, orientation and tempo – previously overlooked in the literature. Additionally, it provides an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the relationships between time, culture and socioeconomic development.

The article aims at exploring the challenges and possibilities of cooperation of higher education in a Latin American social, political and cultural context that faces historical difficulties of integration, as well as the potential contribution of academic cooperation for global citizenship.

The paper presents a general overview of networks and international centers of academic cooperation of higher education in Latin America. The analysis comprises objectives, countries, stakeholders, activities, projects and scope. The study is based on literature on internationalization, regional integration and the development of higher education, as well as on empirical gathered with networks/centers and key actors in the field. This study was carried out as a mixed qualitative method design. Firstly, a systematic review of a literature corpus of studies produced by Latin-American scholars was performed. Semi-structured interviews were then carried out with a group of scholars who are members of networks.

The findings include a review of the role of higher education in a politically fragmented reality, a panorama of major networks and international centers of academic cooperation with emphasis on internationalization of higher education, as well as their connections. The are highlighted examples of successful initiatives of cooperation and, based on interviews, there is presented a preliminary view on cooperation and trust building from professionals in higher education in Latin America.

In the last decades, with the growing interest and need for internationalizing higher education, many universities have organized or joined networks and international centers. The article will contribute for mutual knowledge of these spaces, their shortcomings and potentials, thus creating conditions for dialogue among them, as well as with universities in other continents.

This research aims to determine the effect of marketing literacy on the success of entrepreneurial projects (EPS) in Palestine.

To attain the study’s purpose, the researchers employed the questionnaire, which was applied to a random sample of 298 individuals from the owners of entrepreneurial projects in Palestine. The data were analyzed and tested using SmartPls 4 software.

The study reached a set of results, including that the level of marketing literacy among owners of small businesses in the Gaza Strip was significantly higher for customer service (CS), management style (MS), technology (T) and customer retention (CR). In particular, the results implied that CS, MS, T and CR significantly and positively affect EPS.

This research would help the start-ups in Palestine spread marketing literacy among the workers in entrepreneurial projects.

Today, most countries tend to support entrepreneurs and owners of creative ideas and entrepreneurial projects through various programs. To the best of the authors'' knowledge, this research is distinguished by its modernity and scarcity in the Arab world, particularly in Palestine. Thus, it would help raise awareness of marketing literacy among owners of entrepreneurial projects and provide empirical evidence of success for those who are about to establish an entrepreneurial project.

This study aims to use organizational fashion to underscore a novel phenomenon in which products, services and practices fade in and out of the tourism/hospitality setting within a specific time frame. Drawing from the fashion theoretical strands in organization research, this paper studies how fashion has been conceptualized, operationalized and then diffused among tourism/hospitality enterprises.

A qualitative case design was used. A total of 37 semistructured in-depth interviews with executives of innovative tourism/hospitality companies (e.g. restaurants, hotels, theme parks and travel agencies) were conducted. This paper focuses on the organizational fashion phenomenon in which organizational trendsetters with creative, “hot” products/services have emerged prominently in the marketplace.

This inquiry illustrates a social phenomenon concerning the organizational fashion setting process by integrating existing production practices among different organizational suppliers in the hospitality sector. Different cases in the study show that fashion consists of a series of hybrid, paradoxical processes. These include conceptualization (conventionalization vs novelty, and personalization vs conformity), operationalization (bundling vs unbundling, and learning vs relearning) and diffusion (framing vs co-framing, and adaptation vs alteration).

Throughout the three continuous processes, service design and identity development for consumption, as well as value creation and knowledge transformation for production, are carried out according to the decision of what is “hot” and what is “out” at a particular time. In essence, fashion helps to explain why hospitality institutions imitate specific innovations to take advantage of popular trends in the consumer market, as well as how such trends vanish eventually.

This research contributes the insight that organizations use fashion as a managerial initiative to translate their organizational goals and improvise nascent products and services. The fashion processes can be triggered by microlevel individual organizations and are spread through a series of social interactions to become macrolevel phenomena in a recurring manner.

Social sciences have discussed the host–guest relation from many theoretical lenses and perspectives. Violence as well as local crime has been studied as one of the major risks concerning tourism security. Anyway, less attention was given to homeless people and their interaction with foreign or local tourists. The purpose of this paper is oriented to explain how globalization has winners and losers, in which case, as noted, thousands of persons are excluded from the formal labor marketplace or the economic system year by year.

This is a conceptual paper that discusses critically not only the recent advances of sociology in urban tourism but also the connection between homeless people and tourists.

There is an urban underclass formed by those who have been excluded from the economic system. What is more important, such an underclass situates nearby luxury hotels and tourist destinations creating serious contradictions or zones of disputes. These contradictions have been approached by different sociologists since the turn of the 20th century.

The question of sustainability, as well as the idea of liveable cities, and the efficient organization of the city, have occupied a central position in the academic debate, above all after the COVID-19 pandemic. In the present paper, the authors put in dialogue the contributions of Marc Auge with Zyggy Bauman toward a new understanding of this postmodern phenomenon.

Based on the metaphor of vagabonds and tourists, we give a snapshot of the problem of homelessness in Buenos Aires city and its effects on the tourism industry. Unlike other English-speaking countries where the cities are actively organized by the state, Buenos Aires city lacks a planned program to regulate and relocate homeless people. They dwell in nonplaces nearby tourists sleeping in the streets near luxury hotels (but for sure escaping any planning or governmental control).