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The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

The level of deterioration of educational facilities, such as leaking classroom roofs, inadequate good seats, obsolete offices, broken shutters and doors, outdated school buildings, power plants and office equipment like ICT media, laboratories, offices and workshops, despite the involvement of Alumni association in the maintenance of educational facilities for the effective actualization of school objectives was a worrisome nightmare in Kogi state. This, therefore, prompted the researchers to explore the Alumni’s participation in plant maintenance for effective implementation of the universal basic education (UBE) programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state. The purpose of this study was guided by the research question which stated that to what extent does the Alumni Association participate in plant maintenance for effective implementation of the UBE programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state?

A quantitative research approach using a descriptive survey was adopted for the study. The sample was drawn using a proportionate stratified sampling technique comprising 387 participants which consisted of 191 (49%) urban junior secondary school principals and 196 (51%) rural principals in selected UBE junior secondary schools. Alumni’s Participation in Plant Maintenance Questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The data were analysed with the aid of mean and standard deviation for the research question and z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance and the value of z-crit. of 1.96 was used to determine the rejection or otherwise of the hypotheses.

The descriptive analysis revealed that the average mean set of 2.64 pointed to the fact that the respondents averagely agreed that there was a high extent to which Alumni participate in plant maintenance in urban than rural areas for effective implementation of the UBE programme in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state. This indicates that Alumni contribute to the management of UBE schools in Kogi state, especially in the areas of funding, infrastructural facilities, discipline, politics and quality control. This finding also shows that the contributions of the alumni to educational institutions are still unclear if they have made contributions to education in some areas and none in other areas making their relevance to plant maintenance unclear.

In terms of practical implications, the study has contributed to knowledge in that it is the first of this form of a study carried out in Kogi state, and as such the findings of the research will make contributions to the physique of information on plant maintenance for the profitable implementation of the UBE programme in Kogi state. Besides, the degree of plant preservation for the implementation of the UBE programme among applicable stakeholders in Kogi state is nevertheless at a low extent.

Researchers have conducted studies that show how non-state Alumni members contribute to the administration of education across different states. Some of these studies revealed that Alumni members have assisted schools in the provision of teaching and learning materials at the senior secondary or tertiary education level. There are no sufficient studies to show how these Alumni members have contributed to the implementation of the free education programme, especially in public junior secondary schools in Kogi state and this is the gap this study intends to fill.

An attribute common throughout Lor’s distinguished career has been a passion for learning and continuous improvement in an approach that sets high standards, both for himself and others. Taking on the informal mantle of both mentor and mentee, these contributions have blended with no clear boundaries or timelines.

Lor has been active in the library and information sector (LIS) landscape since the 1960s. A stalwart of the library and information profession, the author is being honoured by International Federation of Library Associations and Institution (IFLA) with a prestigious festschrift in recognition of a librarian who has made a sustained contribution to the library and information profession over decades with significant impact on academia, scholarship, praxis, communities and individual librarians.

Lor is recognized as a lifelong mentee as evidenced by his unbounded forays into discovery driven by a natural curiosity that, in turn, shaped his approach to mentoring through teaching, instilling best practices in research methodology and significant contributions to international librarianship. Today this continues in a regular column for South African librarians, drawing from the international literature of books, libraries and information, his role as a key figure in the establishment of Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) in the 1990s, as well as experience from close involvement in developing LIS policies for post-apartheid South Africa, drafting guidelines for national library legislation and serving as IFLA Secretary-General in The Hague.

This viewpoint has been an attempt to share reflections on one individual’s lifetime of influence without borders or timelines. Without doubt, Lor’s global mentorship reach remains unbounded in his approach to critical thinking and desire for continuous improvement for himself and others.

This paper aims to provide a living tribute to the leading autoethnographer, Alec Grant.

Alec provided Jerome with a list of names of people he might approach to write a tribute on his behalf.

The accounts describe the influence that Alec has had both as an educator and as a trusted colleague for the people approached.

While this is a living tribute, it is about one man and could, therefore, be described as a case study. Some people wonder what can be learned from a single case study. Read on and find out.

Alec has carved out a path for himself. In many senses, he chose “The Road Less Travelled”. He has never shied away from challenging “The System” and defending the rights of the marginalized and socially excluded. It is not a road for the faint-hearted.

For systems to change, radical thinkers need to show the way. “Change keeps us safe” (Stuart Bell).

Alec was a well-known and highly respected cognitive behavioural academic practitioner and the author of key textbooks in the field. He then decided to reinvent himself as an autoethnographer. This has brought him into contact with a much more diverse group of people. It has also brought him home to himself.

Political Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), based on ideas about deliberative democracy, have been criticised for increasing corporate power and democratic deficits. Yet, deliberative ideals are flourishing in the corporate world in the form of dialogues with a broad set of stakeholders and engagement in wider societal issues. Extractive industry areas, with extensive corporate interventions in weak regulatory environments, are particularly vulnerable to asymmetrical power relations when businesses engage with society. This paper aims to illustrate in what way deliberative CSR practices in such contexts risk enhancing corporate power at the expense of community interests.

This paper is based on a retrospective qualitative study of a Canadian oil company, operating in an Albanian oilfield between 2009 and 2016. Through a study of three different deliberative CSR practices – market-based land acquisition, a grievance redress mechanism and dialogue groups – it highlights how these practices in various ways enforced corporate interests and prevented further community mobilisation.

By applying Laclau and Mouffe’s theory of hegemony, the analysis highlights how deliberative CSR activities isolated and silenced community demands, moved some community members into the corporate alliance and prevented alternative visions of the area to be articulated. In particular, the close connection between deliberative practices and monetary compensation flows is underlined in this dynamic.

The paper contributes to critical scholarship on political CSR by highlighting in what way deliberative practices, linked to monetary compensation schemes, enforce corporate hegemony by moving community members over to the corporate alliance.

Inspired by the “responsibility turn” in the broader organization/management literature, the overarching aim of this article is to help scholars working at the gender × entrepreneurship intersection produce research with a higher likelihood of being accessed, appreciated and acted upon by policy- practitioners. Consistent with this aim, we hope that our paper contributes to an increased use of academic-practitioner collaborations as a means of producing such research.

We selected Cunliffe and Pavlovich’s (2022) recently formulated “public organization/management studies” (public OMS) approach as our guiding methodology. We implemented this approach by forming a co-authorship team comprised of a policy professional and an entrepreneurship scholar and then engaging in a democratic, collaborative and mutually respectful process of knowledge cogeneration.

Our paper is comprised of four distinct sets of ideas. We start by describing who policy-practitioners are and what they want from academic research in general. We follow this with a comprehensive set of priorities for policy-oriented research at the gender × entrepreneurship nexus, accompanied by references to academic studies that offer initial insight into the identified priorities. We then offer suggestions for the separate and joint actions that scholars and policy-practitioners can take to increase policy-relevant research on gender and entrepreneurship. We end with a description and critical reflection on our application of the public OMS approach.

The ideas presented in our article offer an original response to recent work that has critiqued the policy implications (or lack thereof) within prior research at the gender × entrepreneurship nexus (Foss et al., 2019). Our ideas also complement and extend existing recommendations for strengthening the practical contributions of academic scholarship at this intersection (Nelson, 2020). An especially unique aspect is our description of – and critical reflection upon – how we applied the public OMS approach to bridge the academic-policy divide.

To better understand the characteristics of Indonesian Muslims, this study uses cluster analysis to group upper-middle-class Muslims based on psychographic variables related to participation in cash waqf for productive purposes.

This study used mixed methods to build and analyse the segmentation of upper-middle-class Muslims towards cash waqf and propose scenarios for a cash waqf model based on the findings.

This study identified six clusters for upper-middle-class Muslims related to the participation in cash waqf for productive purposes. All clusters show heterogeneous values of all factors. Although relatively few Muslims perform cash waqf for productive purposes, the high scores for the economic rational, family and community factors indicate great potential for the development of various cash waqf models for investment purposes. The next challenge will lie in reviewing the “one-fits-all strategy” in the development of program, education and socialisation. Based on the findings, this study proposes three scenarios of cash waqf participation: as wakif only (waqf donor), investor only (capital provider) and hybrid participation (waqf donor and capital provider).

The limitation of this study is the location and object of the sample are only Muslims in Indonesia who are categorised as upper-middle class in terms of their monthly income. Based on this study’s findings, other Muslim-majority countries worldwide have the potential to develop a cash waqf model that is integrated with financial instruments and involves the role of Islamic banking and other Islamic commercial institutions in future research development. Researchers can also attempt to include a simulation or experiment method to construct and validate the proposed cash waqf model based on this study’s findings and to explore other factors that have not been addressed.

The findings of this study can contribute as a foundation for the development of a cash waqf model and business-marketing strategy to increase the participation of upper-middle-class Muslims.

The findings of this study will support the acceleration of cash waqf collection for investment initiatives, which in turn will have a broader social and economic impact nationally.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study constitutes the first attempt to specifically investigate upper-middle-class Muslim segmentation toward cash waqf participation for productive purposes. This study’s knowledge is helpful for various stakeholders such as academia, the Islamic banking industry, regulators and the Muslim community about customer segmentation to Islamic banking products and services related to cash waqf.

A main challenge in studying China is that different views clash. A more serious challenge is that studies that are critical of or dissent from the Chinese government policies are labeled “anti-China” by the Chinese authorities, affecting the free academic exchange of ideas on China. This article discusses this issue and proposes a long-term solution.

This is a perspective study and uses the qualitative approach to develop the authors’ arguments.

The authors argue that the contention in China-related studies is derived primarily from the different perspectives that scholars use. This study identifies two main perspectives: the China-centric view and the rest of the world’s view. The combination of the clash of perspectives and the interference of the Chinese state hinders the development of our knowledge regarding China. Using Rawls’ theory of justice and the veil of ignorance, the authors propose to build common ground for the China study community based on academic freedom, equality and the rule of law. This study further shows that building the common ground is feasible.

The authors’ proposed common ground will help create a free environment for meaningful exchange between different perspectives and reduce the risks in China studies.

The authors’ angle to examine the contentiousness and riskiness of China studies is new. It is the first time that different perspectives on China studies are delineated and compared, the costs of the contentiousness and riskiness are assessed, and the long-term consequences of different paths are examined.

The aim of this research is to examine the roles of trust and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) in crowdfunding (CF) participation for equity CF by taking into account the following antecedents of trust and e-WOM: intrinsic motivation (IM), extrinsic motivation (EM), deterrents, venture quality (VQ), third-party seal (TPS), value congruence (VC) and perceived accreditation (PA).

In this research, a survey among 408 active and potential funders in Iran was conducted. The statistical analysis used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results of this research revealed a significant influence of trust and e-WOM on participation in CF for equity CF. Extrinsic motivation had the greatest impact on trust and VC had the greatest impact on e-WOM.

This research extends the equity CF research area to CF success and considers the effects of some parameters on CF participation. This research provides many theoretical and practical implications.

Mainstream narratives in Indian history do not delve into the checkered history of the west coast. The reasons for this are many, including a predominantly center-outwards viewpoint of historians. West coast has always been open to sea route influences aiding its diversity. However, the lack of natural defense against colonizers from the sea destroyed indigenous and personal heritage. Small town narratives include uprooting, lack of access to past heritage and new settlement creation. The heritage of this everyday landscape shaped by human grit is the subject of the study.

This qualitative ethnographic study includes document analysis, transect walking, architectural built form study, open interviews and participatory observations.

The motivations for heritage management can be grouped into economic, cultural and technological. From a financial point of view, the urban core studied is still relevant and sustainable. Likewise, the Krishna temple dominates the cultural discussion and architectural documentation as a religious center. However, the cultural heritage of business streets and the third motivation of building technology have been largely ignored. This disregard is evident from neglect and the pastiche use of monumental or ornamental styles alien to the region for restoration efforts.

“Heritage is personal and individual as well as collective and universal” (Mire, 2016). The Pete heritage is not just crucial for the communities they house but the town as a whole. Their nonimpervious nature means that they hold collective memories for everyone. Attention to memories and monuments will increase the possibilities of shared responsibility between various stakeholders (Swenson et al., 2012). Therefore, they should be seen as a part of the larger whole.

This paper argues for the recent global bottom-up approach in heritage management rather than the conventional established practices. Established heritage management focuses on the mainstream, royal or specific ethnic heritage in the Indian subcontinent. The heritage of the common person rarely has the grandeur of monumental architecture taken up for preservation by the state. As a result, societies' individual and collective heritage are at risk of rapid erasure under the pressures of modernization. Built forms are repositories of cultural information; therefore, a sustainable instrument for the preservation of everyday heritage can be created with culture as an actuator. This study looks at the narrative of the historical coastal small-town business core created by internal mass migration due to colonization.