This article critiques certain factions of the Iranian diaspora opposition for embracing retrotopia–a romanticized, imagined past that reflects present despair and future anxiety. Instead of supporting Iran’s civil society, some rely on foreign powers, promote archaic nationalism and monarchist nostalgia, or advance ethnic exceptionalism, thereby distorting the emancipatory ideals of the Zan, Zendegi, Azadi (WLF) movement. Their rhetoric often glorifies war, employs exclusionary and patriarchal discourses, and undermines pluralism, gender equality, and indigenous democratic change. These factions are identifiable as an “opposition against the movement,” obstructing rather than advancing emancipatory change. The Israeli-American war on Iran (June 2025) further exposed their alignment with external aggression, as well as their strategic confusion, ethical bankruptcy, and detachment from Iran’s grassroots post–Islamist vision of pluralism, inclusivity, and peaceful coexistence.

Why is exposure to political violence associated with both mobilising and demobilising outcomes? Community dynamics influence the local materialisation of violence engendered by supra-local political conflict. The reification of the driving political conflict as intracommunal or intergroup produces disparate outcomes. Exposure to violence may generate an enduring rift concretised through intimate bloodshed or could fashion a shared victimisation experience viable as a collective political mobilisation resource. In Cameroon, the Union des populations du Cameroun (UPC) opposed French colonialism through political action and guerilla warfare. Many saw the UPC as a heroic nationalist movement, others as murderers. Through interviews, I examine narratives that [re]construct social and political meaning out of conflict and death. These narratives of conflict are used to mobilise in places where the UPC was locally hegemonic and demobilise in politically competitive areas.

This article examines systemic rivalry between Indonesian criminal justice agencies, highlighting the inherent conflicts that arise when institutional actors with distinct values and priorities interact. It argues that analysing these conflicts reveals underlying power dynamics that hinder the system’s effectiveness. Indonesia serves as a compelling case study for analysing inter-agency conflict, where the source of conflict transcends procedural differences and stems from a power struggle driven by institutional self-preservation. Utilizing interviews, court decisions, media reports, and legislative analysis, this article delves into the power struggle between the police, prosecutors, and the anti-corruption agency (KPK). The analysis reveals the police to be at the centre of this conflict, resisting reforms that threaten their institutional survival. This article then argues that substantial reform of Indonesia’s criminal justice system would be difficult to achieve, as such rivalry is driven by patronage politics both within and outside the institution.

In recent times, the effects of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural disasters have undermined global efforts to reduce poverty and inequality among rural farmers. While efforts at mitigating the impacts of climate change, particularly in developing countries, have not yielded significant improvements, the global health crises of the COVID-19 pandemic have, in many ways, undermined the positive adaptations to climate change. Based on data produced through mixed methods, the paper explores how COVID-19 affected farmers’ ability to adapt to the changing climatic conditions in Ghana’s Coastal and Guinea savannah ecological zones. The paper argues that the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has undermined farmers’ access to markets, knowledge, innovations, technologies and critical inputs such as fertilisers, seeds and weedicides/herbicides/pesticides. This has decreased farm output, increased post-harvest loss and increased farmers’ vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change.

This article argues that environmental justice extends beyond planning and decision-making to include enforcement as a critical, yet often overlooked, dimension. It advances the claim that incorporating environmental justice into enforcement law and policy is essential for addressing structural inequalities and promoting accountability in environmental governance. The primary objective of the article is to identify environmental justice guidelines embedded in enforcement frameworks, with the aim of strengthening the role of justice in regulatory practice and enhancing the equity and effectiveness of enforcement outcomes. The analysis focuses on three enforcement tools that reflect a flexible and responsive approach: (i) the United States’ Supplemental Environmental Projects, (ii) the United Kingdom’s Environmental Enforcement Undertakings, and (iii) Chile’s Compliance Programmes. The article draws on three sources of data: case studies, the environmental justice guidelines applicable to them, and the existing state of enforcement. It begins by examining the regulatory design of enforcement systems in the three jurisdictions; it then analyzes each tool to identify how environmental justice dimensions are integrated – or could be integrated – into their design and implementation. Finally, it assesses the practical application of these instruments, arguing that the deliberate incorporation of environmental justice considerations can improve the responsiveness, transparency, and legitimacy of enforcement mechanisms, which ultimately benefits both the environment and affected communities.

This article examines diasporic Iranian responses to protests sparked by the death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini in September 2022. While Amini’s death galvanized widespread dissent inside Iran, it also spurred diasporic Iranian solidarity, often expressed through the call to “be the voice” of Iranian protestors. I analyze two key practices of diasporic narration: first, framing the Woman, Life, Freedom protests as a “revolution” in social media discourse; and second, the circulation of nostalgic video montages idealizing pre-1979 Iran as a lost era of political freedom. Together, these practices reveal how diasporic narratives may dilute protest demands by fitting them into revisionist frameworks. The conclusion reflects on both the potential and limits of diaspora narration in shaping political memory and understanding.

In this article, we address the role that European bordering and migration policy play in the broader construction of the European project by defining who does and does not belong in Europe. This question, and the policy answers to it, are shaped by a variety of different political and economic interests and factors, such as racialized narratives of border protection, labor market needs, and the securitization of borders. We tackle this question by examining the role that categories and figures of migration—such as the “genuine” and “bogus” asylum seeker, the refugee, and the economic migrant—play in European border policy and how they are changing in the present conjuncture. We argue that a redefinition is taking place of who counts as a “good” and “bad” migrant, which responds to the changing political economy of contemporary European capitalism and is reflected in the growing prominence of the dichotomy of “legal” and “illegal” migration. This, we argue, reconfigures the existing categories of economic migrant and asylum seeker and speaks to the emergence of new forms of racialized disposability at Europe’s borders. We do this by developing a critical political economy perspective that builds on our previous work and draws on the literature on racial capitalism and the concept of disposability.

The experiences of Latina women and girls with state surveillance, and their responses to unfair policies and practices, remain underexplored. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Latinas—primarily of Mexican descent—living in San Diego, we examine how encounters with local police and immigration enforcement shape their political practices. Participants described repeated negative encounters with police and immigration enforcement agencies over the life course. These cumulative experiences fostered distrust of police and critical views of surveillance practices designed to restrict the mobility of immigrants and other systematically minoritized groups. In response, many of the women engaged in community organizing and adopted counter-surveillance strategies. Our findings show how patterned experiences with state surveillance generate political critique and action.

Agricultural intensification has profoundly transformed Europe’s landscapes, driving widespread declines in farmland bird populations. Among the most pressing threats is the loss of meadows, either through conversion to arable land as a result of intensification, or through agropastoral abandonment leading to shrub encroachment. Although farmland bird populations in Central and Eastern Europe have historically declined more slowly than in other regions, recent evidence shows that even once-common species are now in decline. This highlights the urgent need to quantify these trends and identify their underlying drivers. In this study, we investigate habitat preferences and factors underlying the severe, over 30-year decline of Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio, an iconic farmland species and key bioindicator of grassland biodiversity. Our research focused on a 440-ha alluvial floodplain in Slovenia’s Sub-Pannonian region, a site considered a national stronghold for the species. Territory surveys were conducted intermittently from 1992 to 2025, with detailed habitat mapping available from 2004 to 2022. Consistent with previous studies, our results indicated that breeding Red-backed Shrikes primarily occupied ecotonal habitats marked by extensive meadow cover, moderate shrub density, and high habitat heterogeneity. Alarmingly, between 1992 and 2025, the population declined by 92.44%, decreasing from 172 territories to just 13. The steep decline observed was likely driven by agricultural intensification, persisting under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with conversion of meadows into arable land and the loss of traditional management leading to shrub encroachment. The latter emerged as the strongest predictor of population decline in the most recent years. Our findings emphasise the urgent need to protect, manage, and restore meadows to prevent further biodiversity loss. Considering the relatively better historical status of farmland bird populations in Central and Eastern Europe compared with their Western European counterparts, this worrying trend indicates that similar declines are likely widespread, highlighting the need for immediate research and targeted conservation efforts.

This article examines the lived experiences of multiculturalism among the Indonesian migrant women living in South Korea through the lens of ‘everyday otherness’. The process experienced in this context is seen as part of a broader development of Korean multiculturalism. The article investigates how cultural encounters are perceived, interpreted, and negotiated by Indonesian migrant women. Drawing from qualitative research that dealt with migration narratives, the study aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on Korean multiculturalism and identify areas for improvement. It argues that everyday otherness practices in Korea have become subtler, more nuanced, and multi-layered. It reveals that while everyday multicultural practices in Korea have become more welcoming the presence of foreigners, the daily experience of racism and otherness continues, and is even more confounding.

In this paper, a wideband reconfigurable reflectarray antenna (RRA) using 1-bit resolution for beam scanning with two-dimensional (2D) capability is presented at Ku-band. A 1-bit RRA element with a rectangular patch embedded with slots is proposed for broadband operation. Each element is equipped with a single PIN diode, allowing for resonance tuning while ensuring low cost and minimal power consumption. According to the simulation results, the proposed element is capable of 1-bit phase resolution with a phase difference of ${180^\circ \pm 20^\circ}$ stability from 11.27 to 13.74 GHz, which corresponds to an approximate bandwidth of 19.75%. To demonstrate its capabilities, we developed, fabricated, and tested a wideband electronically RRA with ${14 \times 14}$ elements. The experimental results demonstrate that the realized maximum gain in the broadside direction is 21.1 dB with a peak aperture efficiency of 20.9%. 2D beam scanning within ${\pm50^\circ}$ angular range are obtained and the scan gain reduction is 1.88 dB for ${-50^\circ}$ scanned beam in E-plane while 2.21 dB for ${50^\circ}$ scanned beam in H-plane. The 1-dB gain bandwidth of the RRA is 15.1%.