News & Comment

Large-scale and global explanatory models for past, current, and future human behaviour are currently the focus of all the natural sciences and humanities. But to which extent do such models enable the theoretical and methodological discourse that explains the complexity of human patterns in different geographic and ecological set-ups? Such an effort incorporates principles of geography, ecology, and archaeology, as well as attempts for model parameterisation and adaptation. Building on local behaviour with global implications, this paper explores fundamental parameters of environmental connectivity and ecological functionalities in archaeological and ecological research. As a consequence, I hypothesise a Divergence Problem in archaeological and particularly in socio-environmental models—a mismatch between archaeological data complexity, environmental explanatory variables, and simplicity of the resulting model. Theoretically, the adjustment of global models to regional contextualisation can be achieved by introducing a correction coefficient, hereafter referred to as Glocalization Coefficient, which could allow for the comparison between regional environmental driving factors and individual human activity spheres.

The world faces multiple intersecting crises, several of which are existential. The current dominant economic design is at their root cause, leading to increased advocacy for alternative economic approaches, including Wellbeing Economy. However, the role of culture, both as an objective and as a means of achieving a Wellbeing Economy, is largely absent. In this article, we review how culture has been misunderstood as being dependent on the attainment of basic needs rather than an ever-present, vital, but undervalued attribute of all societies. We discuss how neoliberal economics has individualised and commodified culture, valuing it only as an engine of economic growth and tradeable capital, all of which has led to a substantial diminution and fraying of the social fabric which any positive social transformation will rely upon. Finally, we demonstrate why culture is an essential precondition for the creation of momentum for change through the conversations, shared understandings, new narratives, and communal spaces of all forms which cultural flourishing creates. We conclude by arguing that advocates for a Wellbeing Economy, and similar economic models, such as Doughnut Economics and Foundational Economies, should prioritise and embed support for cultural development as a non-commodified social asset if we are to adequately respond to current crises and navigate to a flourishing and habitable future for ourselves and our descendants.

Parties to the Paris Agreement face mounting social pressure to raise their ambition, thereby reducing the gap between individual pledges and collective temperature goals. Although crucial for inciting positive change, especially given that the Paris Agreement lacks an enforcement mechanism, it is also important to consider social pressure’s potential negative unintended consequences. First, it might undermine the Paris Agreement’s celebrated flexibility, which allows countries to design their Nationally Determined Contributions according to domestic conditions and capabilities. Second, it might result in widespread noncompliance by inciting pledges that the countries concerned prove unwilling or even unable to fulfill. Should that happen, confidence in the Paris Agreement and its institutions might falter. Further research is therefore needed to identify the scope conditions for social pressure to work effectively in the domain of international climate policy.

Social media has expanded the possibilities for citizens around the world to share knowledge and interact about scientific advancements, facilitating to raise public awareness of and interest in science. Amidst this context, scientists in all disciplines are intensifying the use of social media as a data source to capture what citizens express about their achievements, beyond dissemination purposes. Content analysis is the generalised method used by researchers to explore the interactions of citizens in social media about science. In this commentary paper, we explore the social media communicative observations as an emerging technique in the social media analytics to include the communicative dimension of science in the analysis of interactions between scientists and citizens. The implications to empower dialogically the social media communities interested in science are shared.

The development of care robots has been accompanied by a number of technical and social challenges, which are guided by the question: “What is a robot for?” Debates guided by this question have discussed the functionalities and tasks that can be delegated to a machine that does not harm human dignity. However, we argue that these ethical debates do not offer any alternatives for designing care robots for the common good. In particular, we stress the need to shift the current ethical discussion on care robots towards a reflection on the politics of robotics, understanding politics as the search for the common good. To develop this proposal, we use the theoretical perspective of science and technology studies, which we integrate into the analysis of disagreement inspired by a consensus-dissensus way of thinking, based on discussing and rethinking the relationships of care robots with the common good and the subjects of such good. Thus, the politics of care robots allows for the emergence of a set of discussions on how human-machine configurations are designed and practiced, as well as the role of the market of technological innovation in the organisation of care.

Violations of the responsibility of humanitarian and development organizations to do no harm are a serious concern. Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, commonly referred to as PSEA, is a widely used acronym that highlights the need to safeguard vulnerable women, children, and men from acts of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by humanitarian aid and development workers. PSEA safeguarding denotes the responsibilities incumbent upon organizations such as the United Nations, the Red Cross, and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) that are involved in the management of international humanitarian and developmental programs. This commentary can be interpreted as an appeal to INGOs to evaluate the potency of established regulations to safeguard individuals from sexual exploitation in communities and workplaces. The central argument of this paper is that INGOs that focus on cultural transformation are more effective in their attempts to address violation than those organizations that adopt a centralized approach wherein attempts to secure power and control emerge as the prevailing drivers. It is incumbent upon INGOs to engage in open discussions about the strengths and weaknesses of their existing approaches to search for innovative solutions and facilitate bold actions designed to enhance their effectiveness on PSEA. Researchers are encouraged to look at gaps in the academic literature that connects PSEA and cultural transformation in the INGOs and do further work in this field as it would contribute to remedying weaknesses in prevailing mechanisms designed to prevent SEA.

Historical linguistics is the study of language change and stability, of the history of individual languages, and of the relatedness between languages. In spite of numerous acknowledgements, the adoption of quantitative methods in historical linguistics is still far from being mainstream and it falls below the level of other branches of linguistics. This comment considers the adoption of quantitative methods in recent historical linguistics research, and compares a study on 2012 publications with a similar study conducted seven years later. This comment argues for the advantages of a wider adoption of quantitative methods among historical linguists, and considers various reasons for the relatively slow progress in this direction. It also clarifies when quantitative methods are not the preferred route.