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This study aims to outline an axiology of inclusivity, which can facilitate self-reflection on the possible impact of acting and pursuing a more inclusive branding and marketing for places.

By deconstructing the main assumption, which constitutes the new inclusive paradigm in the marketing and branding of places as more participatory, responsible and democratic, this article tackles critical and pragmatist concerns about the political dimension and its implications for branding and marketing theories and practices in the realm of places.

The article argues that, to be understood and enacted as inclusive, branding and marketing should be seen and act as (bio)political arts of government, characterized by the impolitical as an alternative form of political praxis, whose axiological foundation is based on a particular form of civism, which offers a different mode and stance of approaching political effects and impacts for all stakeholders involved.

Little has been written about the political value, substance and appearance that indicate inclusivity as a fundamental notion for participation, engagement and democracy. This article contributes to the existing literature, arguing that inclusivity should be demystified, as it may present a self-fulfilling discourse that might create political problems.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how recent immigrants and refugees to Canada (“newcomers”) use the facilities of a large, urban public library. As the library previously surveyed the general user population, the responses to the two surveys can be compared.

Questionnaires were administered as patrons were leaving Surrey Libraries Branches to adult public library members who self-identified as newcomers who arrived in Canada within the previous ten years.

The pattern of library use by newcomers differed from that of the general population. They visited more frequently and stayed longer. Newcomers were heavier users of library services and used a wider range of services. They used the library branch as a public place. The library provided them with a place to study, read or meet other people.

The study was exploratory. The small sample size and the data collection process do not allow extrapolation to the underlying population.

Recent newcomers often have similar informational, psychological and social needs. Public libraries can play a role in assisting newcomers during their adjustment process.

Researchers worked closely with library management to develop questions based on decision usefulness. An earlier in-house study allowed comparisons to be made between branch use by newcomers and general library users. Canadian studies into government policy, along with immigrant and refugee studies, provide context for the survey results.

The paper seeks to explore how universal welfare arrangements based on needs testing may change and assume different institutional forms. Drawing attention to Norwegian home care, the paper explores how established interpretations of needs and associated notions of equity among needs have been challenged by shifting modes of governance.

The study draws on policy documents, interviews and observation from three different case studies undertaken at different points in time representing different eras of governance. From this perspective, the study examines the role of professionals taking part in needs assessment.

The studies indicate that routines for needs assessment in home care are contingent on shifting logics of governance. A shift in policy of needs testing may be described as a shift from a personal situated approach encouraging “creative justice” towards a detached and impartial approach better equipped to ensure “proportional justice”. The latter approach has become more dominant as heightened attention has been paid to citizens' rights. It is, however, questionable to what extent it will improve the preconditions for treating citizens with equal concern and respect.

The case study approach underlying the study is incapable of providing generalised conclusions about the development in all Norwegian municipalities.

Universalism is often talked about as a stable feature of the Nordic welfare system. Drawing attention to the underlying and elusive notions of needs, the study makes explicit some unstable aspects of universalism.

This paper aims to examine the ethics of authentic talent development in socioeconomic context by considering a set of alternative ethical frameworks. It juxtaposes the ideals of civic virtue, which involve a concern for the common good, with the reality that socioeconomic deprivation and sociocultural practices severely constrain talent development opportunities and choice.

The paper draws on several frameworks complementary to the ideals of civic virtue – the basic goods approach, human capital theory, the capabilities approach and the ethic of care – to elucidate the barriers to talent development embodied in sociocultural context, as well as policy and institutional practices to overcoming these barriers.

While multiple ethical frameworks are necessary to fully capture the issues related to authentic talent development in socioeconomic context, a focus on the ethic of care and basic goods provision is an important starting point. There are also a few fundamental starting points for human resource development in responding to ethical concerns regarding authentic talent development.

While the prevailing approach to talent development is implicitly based on a logic of social identity ascription, this paper promotes an alternative approach based on the ethics of civic virtue. While the former is oriented to the support of social hierarchies based on identity, the latter is oriented to fostering both social and human well-being via choice and authentic talent development.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

Taking an inter-Asian perspective on the perception of China’s rise and power shifts in Asia, this reflection draws on the examples of Hong Kong’s years-long pro-democracy movement, Taiwan’s democratization and India’s anti-China sentiments to discuss the growth of domestic and international discontents against China’s projection of sharp power, even military power, along its peripheries. The severity of these crises suggests that an assertive China has trapped itself in a perpetual cycle of intensifying authoritarian rule at home and seeking expansionary outreach abroad. China’s diplomatic and military adventurism is likely to antagonize potential allies, jeopardizing the hope for inter-Asian solidarity and cooperation.

The authors consult relevant secondary literature to contextualize the perception of China’s rise to domination from an inter-Asian perspective.

Following the end of the Cold War in 1990 and the demise of the Soviet Union as a Eurasian empire, some cultural theorists proposed a postcolonial, inter-Asian perspective to de-globalize the Euro-American-dominated humanities and social sciences, recognizing that many areas once deemed by the West as marginal and peripheral had contributed to the transformation of the modern world. The nineteenth-century Western imperialists and early twentieth-century Japanese militarists once deployed the geopolitical concept of “Asia” to advance their respective discourses of modernity and progress. Thus, the very notion of Asian solidarity or Pan-Asianism is deeply problematic because it reminds us of the entwined histories of colonial oppression and resistance against imperialistic intrusions.

The conventional “inter-Asian” perspective that emphasizes relational connectedness across and within nations does not seem applicable to explaining the troublesome relationship between American universalism and China-centric authoritarianism.

In today’s multipolar world, the USA and China are embroiled in a competitive relationship regarding the shape the global order should take. The recent US-China trade war is only the opening shot in the wider bilateral conflict. Behind this contest for global leadership in economic influence and technology is a serious battle of ideas.

China is still coming to terms with many unexpected consequences of globalization. Steady recovery gave China a temporary reprieve but the overall economy has weakened due to many years of trade disputes with the USA and the COVID-19 pandemic. China has yet to find a way to coexist with a fast-developing India, address the genuine grievances and demands for democratic change in Hong Kong and accommodate a stronger pro-independence force in Taiwan. To revive the vision of inter-Asian solidarity, China should build trust at home and abroad and reimagine institutional mechanisms for conflict resolution. Otherwise, it would trap itself in endless cycles of tensions and conflicts that benefit no one.

The rapid rise of China to power in the Eurasian continent and Asian waters has not only distorted the inter-Asian vision of seeking unity among postcolonial states but also accelerated competitions for territorial resources and regional dominance. By reflecting on the latest interventions of China in geopolitical affairs, this paper shows that despite the rhetorical appeal of horizontality, the engagement of many emerging Asian powers has diverged from the ideal of inter-Asian cooperation. The task for scholars is to gain a more accurate understanding of the fluid situations on the ground.

Social media has the potential to enable exchange of diverse opinions, foster dialogue on important social issues and exert positive influence on stakeholders and society. However, evidence is contradictory as to whether this is the case; it is possible that millennials' behaviors on social media are mainly driven by conservation (conformity and safety) or self-enhancement (power and achievement). In this research, the authors examine the extent to which different human values (self-transcendence, conservation, self-enhancement and openness to change) influence millennials' activities and behaviors on social media.

The authors conduct three separate surveys on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with 491 millennials (18–34 years of age) in the USA, examining the influence of four higher-order values of the Schwartz human values model (open self-transcendence, conservation, self-enhancement and openness to change) on specific social media activities (consumption, self-focused and sharing nonpersonal content activities).

First, the authors find that for millennial users, human values significantly influence social media activities. Second, conservation values, followed by self-enhancement values, overshadow the expression of open self-transcendence values on social media. Thus, social media platforms may function more as agents of conservation and self-enhancement than agents of personal growth.

This is among the first studies to examine the influence of human values on social media and to find that human values such as conservation and self-enhancement have a strong influence on users' social media activities, while open self-transcendence values, which lead to expansion and growth, do not find genuine expression on social media.

With the UK Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government reaching its mid-term point, this paper examines its austerity measures and public expenditure reductions in family support and children's services, and its revisions of family support, family intervention, child poverty, child well-being and children's services reform policies in contrast to the former Labour governments.

The paper is informed by policy analysis and research reviews.

The analysis focuses on three dimensions of policy change: first, reductions in income support for children and families and central government funding for children's services; second, refocusing child poverty, child well-being and family policies around the Conservative's “Broken Britain” campaign and the Liberal Democrats targeted social mobility initiatives; and finally, broader children's services reforms. The paper recognises some progressive developments but charts the social welfare implications of reduced welfare entitlements for families and the pressures on support services for families from children's services reforms.

The paper combines reflections on the aims, achievements and limitations of Labour reforms to family support and children's services with a broader analysis of welfare state retrenchment and restructuring under the Coalition. It places current changes in family support and children's services within the context of the ideological influences on the Coalition's social policies and the primacy of its austerity programme and welfare state reform agendas.

The overarching purpose of this paper is to empower K‐12 educators, colleagues in teacher education programs, and educational leadership personnel to address social justice issues within communities where divergent perspectives abound.

The authors use a discursive method to uncover the historical and theoretical differences between global education and inclusive education, identify the ways in which the two fields are complementary, and propose strategies for education leadership personnel that build on the commonalities and best practices of both fields.

The authors argue that the two fields have essential elements that can and should inform each other. They term this intersection “inclusive global education”. They integrate the concepts from global education and inclusive education to define inclusive global education as a pedagogical and curricular stance, a way to honor the diverse cultural, linguistic, physical, mental, and cognitive complexities of all people, and a process that puts problematization of social justice issues at the center of leadership and teaching/learning activities.

Whereas global educators traditionally focus on learning to understand and come to respect the cultural, social, and political “other”, the traditional focus of special educators is to empower students to gain self‐respect. The authors argue that the first step involves a discourse that allows people with equally compelling but different views to learn to problematize issues of social justice. Once this first step is taken, inclusive global educators can come to agreements within diverse communities as to how to address local or global social justice issues. The authors further argue that global educators and special educators combine their knowledge of both fields. Together, global inclusive educators can forge pedagogical content knowledge that bridges the gap between affirming one's own identity and maintaining unity with the whole, and exemplifies a robust notion of social justice.

The authors believe this is the first attempt to integrate the conceptual and theoretical assumptions of two divergent knowledge bases (global education and inclusive education).