Virtual reality (VR) can boost charitable attitudes and behavior. In an experiment with 100 participants viewing the content in VR vs. desktop computer, the VR group exhibited significantly higher levels of spatial presence (MD = 1.24, p < .001), attention allocation (MD = . 58, p < .001), spatial situation model building (MD = .47, p = .01), and empathy (MD = .46, p = .049). Donation behavior did not differ between the two groups (p = .36). Both computer and VR viewers shared similar emotions, but VR users felt greater immersion and emotional intensity, perceiving themselves as active participants, while computer viewers took a more passive role. This study generated insights for nonprofits considering VR in their marketing strategies, shedding light on the potential of VR storytelling and its effects on charitable giving.

This article examines the Tangchaodun bema—a liturgical structure dating to the Gaochang Uyghur Kingdom in Xinjiang—as a regional manifestation of the architectural and theological tradition of the Church of the East, shaped over centuries of transmission and adaptation. Through comparative analysis of archaeological remains and liturgical texts from Syria, Mesopotamia, and Central Asia, the study argues that the Tangchaodun bema follows the ‘eastern-type bema’ model rooted in the East Syrian tradition. Its spatial configuration and ritual function reflect established Mesopotamian patterns, particularly in the mirroring of bema and sanctuary, while also incorporating localised features shaped by visual adaptation and intercultural contact. Bilingual inscriptions and iconographic traces further attest to this integration of tradition and regional context.

Rather than existing in isolation, the Tangchaodun bema forms part of a broader historical development in East Syriac ecclesiastical architecture. By positioning the site within this extended line of transmission, the article shows how sacred space operated as a medium of both theological continuity and cultural dialogue across Asia. In so doing, it offers new perspectives on the role of Christian architecture in the Tang to Yuan Dynasties and contributes to a more integrated understanding of the Church of the East in its easternmost reaches.

Museum visitors are not reflective of the diversity present in communities around the nation. In this study, we investigate the racial and ethnic diversity of art museum participants as well as the potential motivations and barriers to visiting a museum. Using the General Social Survey, we examine race and ethnicity and arts participation in the USA. We find Black individuals are less likely to attend an art museum than white individuals. Certain motivations and barriers to participating may explain part of the lack of diversity. We find Black and Latinx individuals are motivated to participate in art museums for cultural heritage reasons more than white individuals, but race and ethnicity are unrelated to perceiving admission fees as a barrier. This research highlights the urgency in the field to make museums more inclusive.

Food pantries typically operate in a partnership structure where they are primarily supported by a larger food bank. However, the ability to execute that mission through cooperative arrangements greatly depends upon accountability, a key dynamic that ensures partners are fulfilling expectations and key roles. This exploratory study utilizes qualitative interview data (n = 61) from a large food bank network to understand the extent to which a lead agency (i.e., a large food bank) meets expectations of accountability among partners. The interview results demonstrate that the extent to which expectations are met relate to different types of relationships between the lead agency and partner members. Furthermore, the ways in which partners assess the strengths or weaknesses of the food bank’s accountability reveal different types of relationships within the network, namely that of supplier–customer, supporter–customer, and supporter–collaborator.

This article concerns the ‘rule in Gibbs’: a controversial principle of English private international law which provides that a debt is only discharged in a foreign insolvency proceeding if the contract is governed by the law of that proceeding. Critics of the rule consider that it undermines the foundation of corporate insolvency as a unitary process in which individual collection efforts are replaced by a collective proceeding for all creditors. This article offers a qualified defence of the rule. It suggests that it could be abandoned in ‘true’ insolvency cases, in which the company’s assets are sold to a third party and the proceeds distributed to its creditors, but only if the rule is replaced with a cross-border insolvency law framework. It also suggests, however, that Gibbs is the ‘right’ rule in a cross-border corporate restructuring, in which only some of the company’s creditors stay with the firm to benefit from any future upside that the third party would otherwise capture in a sale. It argues that European Union private international law adopts this approach to a restructuring and that the Gibbs rule is, therefore, not nearly as exceptional as it is sometimes made out to be.

A pattern of reduplication marks the intensity of evaluatives in Fungwa. CV syllables of nominal roots and CV prefixes can be reduplicated, but V syllables cannot. The intensity marker, which also has a CV shape due to an onset condition, can be multiply repeated. The reduplicative intensifier and its repetition(s) are akin to arbitrary affixes in the language in terms of their phonological characteristics, and they are also consistent with non-arbitrary sound-meaning mapping across languages. Formally, the repetition and shape of the reduplicant are considered to be effects of morphosyntax and markedness constraints. Considering that the evaluative marker and the intensifier are consistent with patterns of sound symbolism, Fungwa presents categorical evidence for the perspective that soundmeaning mapping involves both arbitrariness and non-arbitratriness.

There is growing evidence suggesting that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in lower-middle-income countries and emerging economies are facing challenges about their sustainability due to changing aid patterns for development. While the changing development context and the challenges posed to NGOs are increasingly receiving research attention, an understanding of how organisations are responding remains very limited. This article draws on 65 qualitative interviews and presents findings about how NGOs in Ghana, West Africa, are responding to the emerging concerns about their sustainability in the context of the changing aid landscape. Findings suggest that NGOs in Ghana are combining at least six main strategies to attain sustainability. We have categorised these as: (1) eggs-in-multiple-baskets; (2) cost-cutting; (3) strength-in-numbers; (4) security-under-partnership; (5) credibility-building; and (6) visibility-enhancing strategies.

Are televised election debates (TEDs) a blessing for democracy, educating citizens and informing them of their electoral options? Or should they be viewed as a curse, presenting superficial, manipulating rhetoric in one-way communication? In this article, I evaluate TEDs from a deliberative point of view, focusing on the potential positive and negative outcomes of framing by politicians, as well as on the pros and cons of displaying emotions in debates. I argue that the use of these two rhetorical devices in TEDs is potentially helpful in inspiring deliberation, perspective-taking and subsequent reflection in both politicians and voters. This leads me to conclude that televised election debates should be critically approached as communicative venues with potential deliberative qualities.

Volunteering is associated with health-promoting benefits for both recipients and volunteers and may contribute to a more inclusive society. However, studies have shown a persistent pattern of social inequality among those who volunteer, and immigrants participate as volunteers less than the majority population. To date, approaches for recruiting immigrant populations have not been sufficiently examined, even though multicultural societies are becoming increasingly diverse. This study investigates how recruitment is carried out in voluntary organizations and how volunteers who are involved in recruitment reflect on the inclusion of citizens with immigrant backgrounds. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 18 volunteers and three employees with recruitment responsibility at five voluntary organizations engaged in welfare and community-related activities in a semirural district in Norway. Our findings show that different structural factors and individual aspects of the recruiter influence the recruitment of immigrants as volunteers. Large-scale organizations are more professionalized and more directed by fundings and frameworks and demand more qualifications due to their volunteer tasks. This might make inclusive recruitment more challenging. Small-scale organizations have more flexibility and less professionalized volunteer activities, making recruitment more inclusive. In addition, if the small-scale organizations are minority driven, it seems to positively influence the recruitment of immigrants through increased diversity sensitivity and more connections with immigrants through their social network.

Nicaea and the local church culture from which it emerged are examined to reveal that the lower clergy and laity had a distinct role in acclamation. They voted in episcopal elections and enjoyed a more intimate relation with their bishop. These elements of a dispersed authority are then used to critique contemporary governance in the Church of England as under- and over-centralised and to call for a renewal of a Dionysian understanding of hierarchy as enabling a more spiritual understanding both of episcopacy and of the participation of the whole people of God.

The cytochrome P450 enzymes catalyze the hydroxylation of organic substrates by dioxygen. The high-potential reactive intermediate in cytochrome P450 catalysis, compound I (CI), has the capacity to deliver oxidizing equivalents (holes) to the side chains of tryptophan, tyrosine, and cysteine amino acids. Successful P450 catalysis requires that CI reacts more rapidly with a substrate than with these redox-active residues. The kinetics of hole transfer to tryptophan, tyrosine, and cysteine residues in four different P450 enzymes have been modeled using X-ray crystal structure coordinates and the semiclassical theory of electron transfer. Monte Carlo sampling of reaction driving forces has been used to account for uncertainties in the formal potentials of redox-active groups. The kinetics simulations suggest that the mean survival lifetimes of holes on the hemes range from ~100 ns to ~100 μs. Although hole transfer to the enzyme surface through redox-active amino acid reduces substrate oxidation efficiency, it can protect the enzyme from damage when reaction with substrate fails.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the potential link between religious participation and civic engagement in Sweden. Religious participation probably plays a different role in a secular context compared to a context where religion and politics are more intertwined. First, do those who regularly attend religious services in Sweden volunteer and participate in charitable giving more often compared with those who do not? Second, are those who regularly attend religious services more, or less, politically active between elections compared with those who do not in Sweden? Third, do those who regularly attend religious services in Sweden receive more requests to volunteer than those who do not? The study uses survey data on volunteering from random samples of individuals in Sweden. Results showed that volunteering was limited to a restricted group of organizations. There is a higher propensity among those who regularly attend religious services to volunteer within political parties. Those who frequently attend church were significantly more often requested to volunteer by someone else.

This article combines the fields of deliberative theory and citizenship studies. Drawing from a deliberative experiment on foreigner political rights with almost 300 German citizens, we find that a short virtual deliberative treatment produced a clarification effect, whereby especially those with already negative views increased their scepticism. Participants in our deliberative treatment displayed higher levels of argument repertoire and integrative complexity, underlining that the treatment led to well‐considered opinions. A qualitative analysis of participants’ substantive rationales unravels traces of what De Schutter and Ypi dub ‘mandatory citizenship’, implying that political rights must be attached to obligations. These results have wide ranging implications: They indicate that the practice of deliberation is not quasi‐automatically programmed to progressive outcomes (as some have argued) but can have a communitarian dimension (where preferences are determined on the basis of existing communal values and self‐understandings); this suggests that participatory practices may not always advance progressive reforms.

Systematic and openly accessible data are vital to the scientific understanding of the social, political, and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article introduces the Austrian Corona Panel Project (ACPP), which has generated a unique, publicly available data set from late March 2020 onwards. ACPP has been designed to capture the social, political, and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the Austrian population on a weekly basis. The thematic scope of the study covers several core dimensions related to the individual and societal impact of the COVID-19 crisis. The panel survey has a sample size of approximately 1500 respondents per wave. It contains questions that are asked every week, complemented by domain-specific modules to explore specific topics in more detail. The article presents details on the data collection process, data quality, the potential for analysis, and the modalities of data access pertaining to the first ten waves of the study.

In the context of super-diverse cities, scholars and policy makers are increasingly interested in the potential of volunteering to establish identification for newcomers and locals alike. In this paper, we address the question of how young volunteers in Rotterdam and Vienna negotiate belonging within their super-diverse surroundings. Our exploratory study builds on a cross-national research project in which we collected qualitative interview data from volunteering youth. We follow a weak-theory approach and conceptualise belonging as emotional, procedural, and relational. We trace identification processes of newcomers and locals in terms of belonging through volunteering in urban contexts of super-diversity. Our paper demonstrates that volunteering serves as a vehicle for feelings of belonging and inclusion for young volunteers, specifically addressing the urban super-diversity of Vienna and Rotterdam. Our research also indicates the partiality and temporality of volunteering as a source of belonging and the function of volunteering as a structure of inclusion, not necessarily enabling structural inclusion.

While the international literature has significantly addressed the “new forms of voluntary action,” there has been limited attention paid so far to the reintermediation processes of contemporary volunteering. This paper intends to fill this gap. First, a research approach based on a renewed sociological consideration of volunteering, path dependency and strategic field theory is presented and four ideal–typical traditions of volunteering (active membership, direct, program-based and organize-it-yourselves) are introduced. Then the Italian case is explored. Although the analysis is only exploratory, it enables us to understand the coevolutions of the four traditions and to identify a new restructuration model based on professional agencies coming from the membership tradition. The paper can help future studies to reconsider the magnitude and dynamics of second modernity trends and to tackle continuities and changes in the reintermediation of volunteering in situated and processual terms.

International comparative research on civil society has subordinated Africa’s diversity and specificities to other geographies and histories. Results are prejudiced global conceptualisations, questionable enumeration, problematic theory formulation and ill-conceived approaches to development initiatives intended to make African civil society ‘stronger’ and states more democratic. This article sets out a case for an endogenous approach to civil society enquiry as a political category sensitive to the continent’s particularisms. In order to locate discussion about meanings, measures and measuring, a conceptual framework for research is described which avoids conflation with other epistemologies. Such a contribution will assist in sharpening thinking and discussion about the boundary characteristics of what is to be investigated.

Social enterprises face complex institutional logics due to their focus on both economic and social goals, resulting in institutional tensions. Interorganizational collaboration is a strategy to cope with environmental turbulence and complexity. Guided by institutional theory and the literature on interorganizational collaboration, this study examines the role of partnership building in managing institutional tensions and hybrid organizational forms undertaken by social enterprise organizations. With interview data collected from 15 social enterprises in a southeastern state in the USA, this study demonstrates that the majority of the sampled organizations reported experiencing organizing and learning tensions while a couple reported performing and belonging tensions. Organizations leveraged specific cross-sector partnerships to obtain legitimacy and sustain their businesses. A typology of partnerships (community engagement, resource acquisition, and dual-value) is proposed based on organizational forms and activities undertaken by various SEs to manage these tensions.

By applying the concept of participatory spaces, this article maps and analyzes current research on mental health service user organizations (MHSUOs). We have analyzed research literature from 2006 to 2016 to examine how the role of and challenges facing MHSUOs are formulated in the post-deinstitutional era. The current situation is marked by MHSUOs parallel presence in invited, claimed and popular spaces for participation. The post-deinstitutional era is characterized by a shift in focus from gaining access to such participatory spaces, to critically examining the political opportunities available in these. We further argue that the dominance of psychiatry-specific spaces could prevent MHSUOs from fully exploring their potential for participation in broader social issues.