Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and the Challenges of Missionary Diocese

For some years now the Anglican Church in Nigeria has been contending with the problems arising from the creation of missionary dioceses. Many retreats for the bishops in the missionary dioceses have been held from late 2000 to date, in an effort to find solutions to the problems, yet the problems have continued unabated. The situation provokes concern and interest in public discourse and intellectual circles. This study examines critically the problems of missionary dioceses and the effects of such problems on the workers and their families therein using a historical approach and both primary and secondary sources. The findings show that some of the missionary dioceses were created with poor funding and facilities as there was no adequate preparation for their creation. The study therefore recommends that the Church of Nigeria should support the missionary dioceses to stabilize.

Companionship and worries in uncertain times: Australian parents’ experiences of children and pets during COVID-19

Companion animals (pets), especially cats and dogs, have featured regularly in the media and public discourse during the global COVID-19 pandemic, including increased demand for pet adoption and more time spent with existing pets. This qualitative study aimed to describe the experiences of Australian parents with a child under 18 years and a cat or dog. Within a broader survey, parents were asked open-ended questions about the benefits and challenges for their family of living with a cat or dog during COVID-19, and where relevant, about reasons for adopting a new pet. Data were collected between July and October 2020, during Australia’s ‘second wave’ of COVID-19, when some Australians were subject to strict physical distancing or ‘stay at home’ orders. A total of 611 parents provided at least one free-text response. Inductive template analysis was conducted on all responses; 33 unique codes were identified and mapped onto a biopsychosocial model under three themes: (i) “Trying to Stay Healthy and Well” (biological), (ii) “Comfort, Coping and Worries” (psychological), and “Spending More Time Together” (social). Findings highlight the therapeutic role of pets for families during times of change and uncertainty, as well as the significant social impact of pandemic-related restrictions on family units. Benefits included support for the family’s physical and mental health, maintenance of family routines, distraction, comfort, and pets as an opportunity to connect with others. Challenges were numerous and diverse, such as cost and access to pet care, behavioural concerns, worries about pet and child wellbeing, and reflections about the pet’s mortality. These findings demonstrate the complex and varied impacts of the pandemic on families with children and pets; some families are likely to require ongoing psychological, financial, and veterinary supports.

The Red Gown: Reflections on the Visual History of Menstruation in Scotland

Over the last decades, menstruation has become more present in public discourse in Scotland.While scholars are increasingly documenting this change, little attention has been paid to therole of menstrual art made in Scotland. In this article, we explore the historic contexts ofmenstrual art in the town of St Andrews and in Scotland during the late twentieth and earlytwenty-first century, and ask what this reveals about menstrual absence and presence in publicdebates. We do this in collaboration with artist Bee Hughes, whose practice focuses on thevisible and invisible aspects of menstruation, and who was artist in residence at St Andrews in2020. Due to a university strike and a pandemic, our collaboration changed and subsequentlyfocused more on the histories of menstrual art. We thus assess symbols and collections ofmenstrual visual culture in Scotland, including the use of the ceremonial red gown at theUniversity of St Andrews, and menstrual art collections at Glasgow Women’s Library and StAndrews Special Collections. Together, we reflect on how their histories might be both present(institutionalised) and absent (when not on display). 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Factors influencing the update of beliefs regarding controversial political issues

When updating beliefs in light of new information, people preferentially integrate information that is consistent with their prior beliefs and helps them construe a coherent view of the world. Such a selective integration of new information likely contributes to belief polarisation and compromises public discourse. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the factors that underlie biased belief updating. To this end, I conducted three pre-registered experiments covering different controversial political issues (i.e., Experiment 1: climate change, Experiment 2: speed limit on highways, Experiment 3: immigration in relation to violent crime). The main hypothesis was that negative reappraisal of new information (referred to as “cognitive immunisation”) hinders belief updating. Support for this hypothesis was found only in Experiment 2. In all experiments, the magnitude of the prediction error (i.e., the discrepancy between prior beliefs and new information) was strongly related to belief updating. Across experiments, participants’ general attitudes regarding the respective issue influenced the strength of beliefs, but not their update. The present findings provide some indication that the engagement in cognitive immunisation can lead to the maintenance of beliefs despite disconfirming information. However, by far the largest association with belief updating was with the magnitude of the prediction error.

Assessing the Effect of Bilateral Trade on Health in the Asian Region: Does Digitization Matter?

A recurrent theme of the literature and wider public discourse is that trade and digitization are good for health as it promotes economic prosperity. The present study investigates the impact of trade and digitization on health in 12 selected Asian economies for the period 1991–2019. The study applied FMOLS and DOLS approaches for confirming the panel and economy-wise findings. The core findings of the panel FMOLS confirm the significant negative impact of trade and digitization on mortality rate, and trade and digitization have significantly positively contributed to life expectancy in selected Asian countries in the long run. The study deduces some imperative policy implications related to trade, digitization, and health, specifically for Asian economies.

Main body

Recently, misinformation has increasingly impacted public discourse and public safety. From the COVID-19 pandemic to national elections, society is increasingly examining the negative impact of misinformation. Exposure to misinformation has been linked to conflicting perceptions of social, economic, and political issues, which leads to polarization, radicalization, and even acts of violence. While research has examined the development and spreading of misinformation, little has been done to examine the processes of being exposed to, and influenced by, misinformation. This paper uses Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory to examine the effect of individual differences in personality traits related to the behavioral inhibition system on the behavioral and cognitive response to exposure to misinformation online. Trait BIS was related to how much individuals positively engaged with misinformation, as well as intentions for activism and radicalism. These findings suggest that high uncertainty/anxiety may increase engagement with and influence by misinformation.

Consumer intentions, reactance and the marketing implications of policy induced mergers and acquisitions in financial services

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to establish, drawing upon the indirect effects of customer reactance from an emerging economy perspective, the marketing implications of policy induced Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) in Financial Services.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a quantitative research approach, relying on data from 517 customers of M&A banks in Ghana. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting respondents for the study. Hypotheses were tested using a structural equation modelling.FindingsA positive and significant relationship between immersive marketing communication and consumer intention is revealed in the study. The presence of consumer reactance highly influenced the relationship. As a public policy tool, forced mergers and acquisitions was found to increase customer reactance. However, when customers are frequently engaged with relevant and consistent marketing communications through appropriate channels, such reactance would only be partial.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough some of the information were collected, they were not the main focus of our analysis. We acknowledge, from the sample demographics perspective, the study did not consider certain other confounding factors that could influence customers' decisions to remain or switch such as customers' level of banking, type of account, income level, banking experiences in relation to service fees, online banking etc., as these could also potentially influence customers' reactance. Perhaps these may have to be considered in future studies.Social implicationsWhen timely and relevant marketing communications are targeted at the customers who are directly impacted by the M&A process, they would experience reactance, but only partially. This has a range of marketing implications for policy-induced M&A and its impact on consumer intention, reactance and attitudes towards the new entity.Originality/valueThe marketing of financial services literature has been silent on the implications of M&A from a policy induced perspective. This study, therefore, contributes to theory by highlighting that the “destruction” of brand value of the affected firms is relatively high in a policy induced M&A and thus increases the level of customer reactance. This is because a regulator enforced M&A, as public policy, usually generates high public interest and public discourse, leading to a heightened customer reactance. However, when immersive marketing communications are targeted at the customers directly impacted by the M&A, they would experience reactance, but only partially.

Theorising human trafficking through slow violence

Human trafficking is predominantly framed as a criminal justice issue with sensationalised, highly visible violence. Stereotypical figures of young women in danger, passively poised to be rescued by figures of the state or vigilante justice, animate public discourse and policy. Yet the reality of trafficking is often far more complex than the linear narratives presented in the mainstream. In this article, I argue that human trafficking is more readily accessible as slow violence, the accumulation and accretion of the consequences of systematic oppression over time. I use Nixon's Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor to articulate a stance against the flash of trafficking's ‘master narratives’. Slow violence offers three key elements for theorising human trafficking, i.e. that the harms are so gradual or delayed they: become imperceptible; compound over protracted durations of time; and may be so mundane and unspectacular to not even register as ‘violence’ in our vernacular. Aligned with a critical trafficking studies approach that draws attention to power dynamics and imbalances, slow violence focuses on the forms of exploitation and precarity that are taken for granted or assumed to be static. I use a collection of artifacts and examples from dominant anti-trafficking organisations and media to demonstrate the urgency required to both rethink trafficking against these flattening overgeneralisations and recommit to a transformative practice that makes more lives liveable. In the tradition of feminist anti-violence scholarship, I conclude by shifting from the micro-level examples of trafficking that fuel misinformation campaigns to the systems that perpetuate violence, exploitation and extraction – and must be eradicated if we are committed to ending human trafficking locally and globally.

JUDICIAL ENFORCEMENT BY SOCIAL ASPECTS

Nowadays, mortality loses its importance. Moral behaviour, and religion have become an alternative. In the public consciousness, religion and morality play second fiddle to law, which is contrary to the use of public discourse. In every rule of law, however, law and its enforcement not a matter of choice. Law is mandatory for all people without exception – as The Fundamental Law of Hungary also sets it out. The main objective of my study is to combine the judicial enforcement with the social network in Hungary, as a system, based on solidarity, given that no particular attention has been paid to this so far. Apart from some measures (debt management programme, National Asset Management Programme), the involvement of the social network in the enforcement procedure has not taken place, although it could be extremely important in particular when judgment debtors are on the verge of eviction.

Balancing Interests

The political terrain surrounding the legalization of same-sex marriage and the need to accommodate individuals' faith-based objections have been part of public discourse since the passage of initial marriage equality statutes. These exemptions played an essential element in the bills' passages and have mainly gone unquestioned from proponents of marriage equality. But for many of the supporters of these religious exemptions, they did not go far enough to protect business owners or government officials who objected on religious grounds. This chapter discusses the resulting tension between religious freedom and marriage equality.