While opposition parties are expected to challenge the government and present alternatives, they often support government legislation. Synthesizing key theoretical explanations, this study examines how opposition parties weigh their goals of winning the next elections, joining or replacing the government and influencing policy. It is hypothesized that opposition parties are more likely to oppose bills when they see chances for boosting their electoral prospects or an early government alternation. Conversely, they support bills when they see chances for future coalition cooperation or policy influence. The analyses of parliamentary votes across four established democracies – Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom – over 75 years, show that opposition parties strategically prioritize these goals based on bill-specific factors and the institutional context. Most innovatively, office-seeking opposition parties’ strategic behaviour depends on the patterns of government alternation. These findings offer crucial insights into the complex trade-offs opposition parties navigate in parliament.

Saflufenacil, atrazine, and pyroxasulfone represent herbicides with a relative field persistence of low, medium, and high, respectively. Field studies were conducted over 2 yr when herbicides and rates were assembled in a factorial arrangement of treatments, and herbicides were applied at rates of 100, 1,000, and 10,000 g ai ha−1. Soil samples were collected over the course of 365 d and analyzed to detect dissipation of the herbicides. Regression analysis was used to quantify the dissipation of each herbicide. The initial herbicide concentration had no effect on the observed dissipation rates of atrazine or saflufenacil; however, pyroxasulfone dissipation was slower at the highest field dosage in both years. Soils from Georgia, Illinois, and Tennessee were fortified with known concentrations of the three herbicides dissolved in water and incubated at 22 C for 154 d. Laboratory studies generally demonstrated slower dissipation compared to field studies, which is plausible because the important loss mechanisms of volatilization or photodegradation do not occur in the laboratory test system. Pyroxasulfone and saflufenacil exhibited no effect of half-life from various initial concentrations, but atrazine exhibited slower degradation occurring at lower initial concentrations. Findings from these studies suggest that initial herbicide concentration has a limited effect on the dissipation of some herbicides: pyroxasulfone in the field and atrazine in the laboratory. This finding is important for researchers who use herbicide degradation rates in simulation modeling because herbicide degradation is often assumed to be independent of the rate applied. Another aspect of this research was the application of each herbicide alone and in combination with the others. Under field and laboratory conditions, there was no change in dissipation if the herbicides were applied alone or in combination.

Pension systems play a crucial role in providing economic security and supporting well-being in later life. However, as governments implement reforms to ensure financial sustainability—such as raising the retirement age, reducing benefits, and shifting to defined-contribution schemes—these measures often overlook their psychological and social consequences. Pension insecurity has been linked to heightened stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as increased social isolation, particularly among vulnerable populations, including those in physically demanding jobs, low-income workers, and individuals with existing health conditions. Despite clear evidence of these effects, mainstream pension reform discourse prioritises fiscal concerns over social and mental health implications. This article examines pension reform through the Human Rights–Public Health Pension Framework (HRPHPF), integrating legal, public health, and policy perspectives to assess its impact on mental well-being. It situates pension rights within international human rights law, explores the psychological risks associated with pension insecurity, and advocates for a human rights-based approach to pension policymaking. The article calls for integrating mental health impact assessments into pension reforms to prevent adverse outcomes and ensure that policies promote dignity, social inclusion, and economic security in old age. A more balanced approach is necessary to align financial sustainability with broader well-being and human rights principles.

This article examines the recent transformation of marriage rituals in Turkey from the perspective of young brides. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Istanbul and Bursa in 2017–19, it discusses how young women construct their marital imaginaries through extravagant ceremonies and festivities such as proposals, photographs, henna nights, and weddings. Drawing from the theory of ritual economy, the article argues that their gendered desire for lavish spending does not position brides as victims of either traditional Turkish customs or the consumer market. Rather, the article emphasizes young women’s aspirations to romance and a sense of uniqueness, and their desire to feel as if they are “living a fairy tale.” These bridal imaginaries reflect the rise of neoliberal individualism, upward social mobility, and status-seeking in Bourdieu’s sense. The article’s findings contribute to the hitherto limited scholarship on changing marriage rituals and the wedding industry in Turkey.

On March 5, 2024, the “Best Practices for the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art” were introduced in Washington, DC.1 Prepared by the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) and diplomats from various countries, they are presented as legally non-binding but morally important standards to clarify and improve the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art.2 As such, they reinforce earlier calls on states to identify artifacts lost due to Nazi persecution and support “just and fair” solutions for title issues. Nevertheless, they go beyond these earlier instruments by proposing further action and widening key elements of the material norm.

How did Arab poets experience the rise of the Islamic empire? How can Umayyad poetry help us understand this formative moment in human history? In this article, I explore the potential of Umayyad poetry for writing the history of the period, focusing on poetry of the soldiers in the Umayyad armies—men distant from political power yet serving as its instruments and deeply affected by the empire’s expansion and consolidation. Their verses complicate the traditional celebratory narratives of the Islamic conquests by giving voice to loss, grievance, and dislocation, revealing the human costs behind imperial triumph. Through its shared tone of nostalgia, this poetry not only preserves perspectives rarely heard in the historical record but also contributes to the emerging history of emotions in the early Islamic world.

Philosophy is a discipline which, perhaps more than any other, is preoccupied with its history. At the same time, this preoccupation has as much to do with maintaining and reclaiming traditions as with critiquing and transforming them. Some figures leave indelible marks on schools of thought, even while attributing credit to their forebears on whose shoulders they in turn innovate and critique. The legacy of these figures is instantiated through the generative role they play in inspiring new schools of thought. Such reception is by no means inherently positive. In fact, it is often disagreement rather than affirmation that sustains the lasting impact of an original thinker.

This article provides a close analysis of Dance on Hands (《掌上舞》, Zhangshang wu), performed by the Chinese popular gewu tuan (song and dance troupe) Meihua shaonü gewu tuan (梅花少女歌舞团, Plum Blossom Girls’ Song and Dance Troupe). In this article, I analyze twelve photographs of Dance on Hands alongside literary descriptions of the Han Dynasty empress Zhao Feiyan’s dance of the same name. Drawing on newspaper reports from the 1930s and 1940s, as well as intersecting secondary sources on literature, theater, and physical culture of the period, I situate Dance on Hands within China’s colonial modern context. I argue that the performance negotiates a dynamic interplay between tradition and modernity, as well as Chinese and Western femininity, while also traversing racialized, classed, and gendered boundaries between the popular and the avant-garde.

The Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-78 was a pivotal event for the Ottoman Empire in various ways, but one of its defining characteristics is its association with the large-scale displacement of people. This article seeks to contribute to the history of migration and displacement in the late Ottoman Empire by exploring how Muslim refugees understood and narrated their experiences. Methodologically it underscores the use of narrative sources, such as memoirs and literary works. The aim is to examine displacement from the perspective of the refugees through sources reflecting their voices, rather than from the standpoint of state and administrative actors. The article focuses on an account of the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-78 and subsequent flight (hicret) by Hüseyin Raci, a Muslim ʿalim, teacher, and poet from Eski Zağra, a city in the Balkans, while also drawing connections with other literary works penned by Muslim refugees.

After seeing the ballet Nocturne (1909) in 1952, Ai Qing (1910-1996), one of the pioneers of Chinese modern poetry, wrote a poem praising the celebrated Soviet ballerina Galina Ulanova for her performance in Les Sylphides (1909).1 His depiction of Ulanova as “cloud,” “wind,” “moonlight,” and “goddess” visualizes the ethereal and exalted feminine ballet body, reflecting Chinese intellectuals’ early admiration for the art of ballet in the nascent People’s Republic of China (PRC). During China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), however, representations of femininity onstage shifted. Female soldier characters who are short-haired, dressed in navy military uniforms, and armed with rifles dominated the dance stage of China in revolutionary ballet. Since the 1980s, the delicate, fairy-like ballerina clad in a tutu has returned to the Chinese stage as the mainstream ballet ideal, aligning with the state’s economic reforms and its strategy of political globalization in postsocialist China.2 With the increasing cultural exchange between Chinese and European/American dancers and choreographers, dance practitioners in China see ballet as a universal, homogenous language. Classical ballet training is often framed as a “scientific and practical course” that conveys a “common, unified, monistic” aesthetic (Meng 2004, 2).

Positive human–wildlife coexistence, especially in contexts of rewilding and the reintroduction of large carnivores, partially depends on communication between stakeholders. The media, and in particular local journalism, can play a crucial role in determining people’s knowledge of and attitudes towards wildlife. In this article, we analyse the online coverage of bears produced by the most widely circulated local newspaper in Trentino (Italy), where bears have been reintroduced thanks to a rewilding project funded by the European Union. Employing quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 375 articles, we look into the main features of the media coverage of bears over one year (2024). We find that articles tend to focus on controversial and uncommon events, such as culls and interactions. The most prevalent sources of quotations in the articles are politicians and activists, while experts, local residents, and individuals in the farming sector are less often quoted. The majority of articles are framed through the lens of the socio-political struggle generated by bear presence. Micro-dynamics of the online media coverage include high polarisation, fragmentation of narratives, and the marginalisation of relevant stakeholders (i.e., local communities, experts, European institutions).

Recent research has shown that 6-month-olds relate novel words suffixed with -s, like babs, that are embedded in passages, with just the stem bab, demonstrating an early sensitivity to morphological relatedness. This study builds on these findings by investigating the role of allomorphy in early morphological acquisition. We tested whether infants relate novel words suffixed with [-z] and [-s] allomorphs of the -s suffix and their stems. We find that English-learning 6-month-olds relate novel words suffixed with the [-z], but not [-s], allomorph with stems, providing evidence for an acquisition trajectory where infants discover morphemes one allomorph at a time.

Punctuated equilibria (PE) was presented 50 years ago as an alternative to the widespread assumption that most evolution proceeds by gradual phyletic change within lineages. Unfortunately, PE has been widely misunderstood, misrepresented, and unfairly dismissed since this first publication. We argue that much of this misunderstanding centers around a misinterpretation of the meaning of “mode” in evolution, and its significance, properly understood, for how we understand macroevolutionary processes. PE proposed that most morphospecies do not show significant anagenetic trends through their stratigraphic ranges, and that most new morphospecies that are recognized arise via cladogenesis. To the degree that this is true, most exploration of disparity space must be associated with cladogenesis.

We surveyed a sample of the recent paleontological literature to assess the frequency with which new morphospecies appear in the fossil record via anagenesis versus cladogenesis using a persistence of ancestor criterion and found the overwhelmingly dominant mode of species origin to be cladogenesis. This is a valuable but underutilized approach to this problem, which could be exploited with more studies of species-level phylogenies of fossil taxa. Combined with the conclusions of other studies that stasis or nondirectional change is common, this finding of the dominance of cladogenesis affirms that PE is very much alive and of substantial significance for understanding macroevolutionary patterns.

This article poses a synthetic analytical approach to casing migratory projects that set out to effectuate a redistribution of power and resources: migration as contentious politics. Contentious migration is presented as an attempt by a collective to mobilize adequate political leverage to advance claims in the location of immigration through spatial relocation and demographic change. To demonstrate the analytical leverage of this approach, this article then conducts a case study of the under-examined Hechalutz settlement movement active in North America between 1905 and 1953, which facilitated the settler migration of American youth to rural agricultural colonies on the colonial frontiers of late-Ottoman and British Mandatory Palestine. It draws on extensive, original findings in colony and national archives, examining official movement publications, correspondences, emissary notes, meeting minutes and daily records from the training farms across North America, diaries, and obituaries. Through eventful analysis, the article explicates three salient mechanisms of the mobilization for contentious migration: (1) environmental (attributing political opportunity and threat); (2) relational (forging networks, as a proxy for diffusion and organizational cohesion); and (3) cognitive (devising resonant diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framings).