International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies
The International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Studies (IJRHSS) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to fostering scholarly discourse in the fields of humanities and social studies. It provides a dynamic platform for researchers, scholars, educators, and students to share innovative perspectives on topics such as literature, history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. Peer Review Double-blind review by subject experts ensuring research integrity Open Access Unrestricted access under Creative Commons license CrossRef DOI Every article assigned a permanent digital identifier IJRHSS is committed to the highest standards of academic publishing. Our editorial process ensures all submissions are reviewed under rigorous double-blind peer review, contributing meaningful original findings to the global humanities and social studies community. As an open-access publication, authors retain copyright under a Creative Commons license promoting wide dissemination and reuse with proper attribution. This approach champions transparency, accessibility, and inclusivity in academic publishing. → Aims and Scope→ Author Guidelines→ Submit Manuscript
The Slant Social “Diagnoses”: Media Influence on Public Opinions in BrexLit Middle England
In Jonathan Coe’s highly-received BrexLit Middle England (2018), deep-rooted social divisions are revealed through the conflicts between individual characters who try to navigate opposing viewpoints in the face of the Brexit referendum. Previous critics have approached these divisions from diverse angles, with some touching upon the effect of media. However, they often oversimplify the influence of media on public opinions, neglecting the complex, heterogeneous nature of the contemporary media landscape and failing to examine how characters’ conscious media choices within a pluralist media environment contribute to their divergent perceptions of British society and Brexit attitudes. Applying Michel Foucault’s medical institution model as an analogy for media systems, this study aims to develop a comprehensive analysis of media influence on three social groups within the novel. The analysis reveals that different social groups in Middle England have distinct media choices, which construct their respective knowledge systems, leading to their slanted “diagnoses” of societal issues. These biased “diagnoses” ultimately lead to different Brexit referendum choices. Meanwhile, the media’s polarized portrayal and adversarial presentation of the “Leave” and “Remain” options intensify the sense of opposition, obstructing meaningful public discussion and dialogue, thereby exacerbating the divisions in the public. This paper reveals the media’s latent power in controlling social perceptions on Brexit issues and calls for critical reflection on the role of media in political discussions in the public sphere.
Copyright (c) 2025 Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
The Logic of Pan-securitization: A Investigation of the EU’s Resilience Construction Policy
The Resilience Building Policy(RBP) of the European Union is in the alienation stage of Pan-securitization. Until 2020, EU’s RBP is based on risk response to address national vulnerabilities. However, after the EU thought about economic issues from the perspective of security, its RBP began to Pan-securitization alienation, and the de-risking policies is a typical representative of this alienation. The construction of Pan-securitization has the following three continuous mechanisms: 1. Narrative Construction; 2. Agenda Setting; 3. Policy Expansion. Based on this theoretical framework, we can find that EU’s conflictual narrative has shaped the policy consensus for the de-risking policies. On this basis, relevant the EU actors strive to promote the de-risking agenda into the policy process and become policy outcome; Finally, policy diffusion both inside and outside of the EU further promotes the implementation of de-risking policies. Overall, a shift from risk-based to threat-based Pan-securitization resilience building is practically difficult to achieve its policy objectives.
Implications of Generational Land Sub-Division and Inheritance on Sustainable Development in Kenya
Land subdivision and generational inheritance have traditionally defined land ownership in most African countries, including Kenya. Over decades, this technique has drastically reduced landholdings, especially in rural Nyamira and Kisii Counties. As this research uses Population Pressure theory, Generational land subdivisions and inheritance in Kenya have far-reaching effects on sustainable development. Land is partitioned as people rise, making portions smaller and less economically feasible. This fragmentation reduces agricultural output, making it hard for people to survive as land is essential for survival and income. The paper claims that land-related norms govern inheritance procedures and cause these households' social, cultural, and economic problems, not politics or structure. These long-standing customs promote land inheritance without addressing sustainability. This causes land fragmentation, financial instability, and poverty, especially in rural areas. Competition for scarce land resources has increased family and community disputes due to population pressure. Land boundary, inheritance, and resource distribution disputes are growing, causing societal unrest. Conflicts arise when land resources become scarcer, hampering sustainable development. The study stresses public awareness of the hazards of unrestricted property subdivisions and a change in land inheritance norms. Kenya may promote development for present and future generations by supporting sustainable land management. Without such adjustments, future generations may confront land shortages, conflict, and fewer economic possibilities, threatening the country's long-term progress.
Human Trafficking Plus Crypto Scamming Equals Crypto Slavery: Solving the Crytoslavery Crimes Dilemma
This paper examines the emerging rise of “cryptoslavery,” our term that combines two crimes: human trafficking into and forced slave labor in cryptocurrency scam operations. Predominantly occurring in Southeast Asia, victims are lured by fraudulent job offers and coerced into executing cyber scams under brutal, inhumane conditions. These schemes exploit the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency with technological advancements, including artificial intelligence coupled with slavery, generating trillions in illicit revenue annually. The research highlights the vulnerabilities arising from digital illiteracy, weak regulatory frameworks, and systemic corruption, which facilitate the proliferation of cryptoslavery. It also examines existing international legal frameworks, such as the Palermo Protocol, to provide foundation and propose a multi-pronged strategy to combat cryptoslavery. This includes improving local and regional prevention efforts, enhancing law enforcement training, fostering international cooperation via a thematic court and strengthening protections for victims to prevent their re-victimization. By addressing the root causes comprehensively, this research aims to eradicate cryptoslavery and safeguard affected populations.
Constitutional Dimensions of Human Needs: a Comparative Analysis of Maslow’s Hierarchy and the Panchakosha Model
This paper offers an interdisciplinary analysis that bridges modern psychological theory and ancient Indian philosophy by mapping Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the Panchakosha model onto India’s constitutional framework. Maslow’s model describes human motivation as a progression from basic physiological needs to self-actualization, while the Panchakosha model articulates existence through five layers—from the physical (Annamaya) to the sublime (Anandamaya). By systematically correlating these paradigms with an expanded array of constitutional provisions—including Fundamental Rights (Articles 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 32), Directive Principles (Articles 39, 41, 47), and Fundamental Duties (Articles 51A)—this study demonstrates that the Indian Constitution is not merely a legal instrument but a dynamic blueprint that fosters holistic human development. The detailed mapping reveals how constitutional guarantees address both material and transcendent dimensions of human existence. These insights not only enrich our understanding of constitutional intent but also provide a fertile ground for future empirical and interdisciplinary research in law, psychology, and Indian philosophy.
Disturbing Flesh. Analysis of the Female Body in the Film the Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) and the Performance Interior Scroll (Carolee Schneemann, 1975)
The aim of this essay is to compare the way in which the female body rebels against phallocentric roles in two artistic works: the film The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) and the performance Interior Scroll (Carolee Schneemann, 1975). Such works have as context the Feminist Revolution of the 1970s. Through a semiotic and aesthetic analysis, focused on the image, the word-body relationship is analyzed. Concepts associated with the Unheimlich, the sinister, ominous, terrifying and disturbing, are associated with the woman's body that, in order to fight against a phallocentric order, uses the exhibition of her highest bodily emblem, the vagina.
Antiques as Signifier: Conflicting Mentality of Old People in the BrexLit Autumn
In Ali Smith’s much-acclaimed BrexLit Autumn, the heroine Elisabeth Demand and her neighbor Daniel Gluck have attracted many critics’ attention as representatives of cosmopolitanism in opposition to the insular mindset of those who chose “Brexit.” However, previous studies have neglected the complex characterization of Wendy Demand, Elisabeth’s mother, and her fragmented national, social, and individual identities. In this context, based on Lacanian psychoanalysis and semiotics, this paper focuses on the characterization of Wendy from a particular perspective, that of antiques. It attempts to examine Wendy’s interactions with antiques as a signifier of her inner conflicts and state of marginalization. It will demonstrate Wendy’s hesitation between English and Scottish identities, her frustration with her fractured social network, and her pursuit of a socially accepted individual identity. It will reveal the particular role of antiques in this novel in disclosing the conflicting mentality of Wendy as a representation of the aging populace on the one hand and paradoxically of Scottish on the other hand during the time of “Brexit.”
A Critical Review of the Role of Learning English Vocabulary in the Classroom in Developing Practical Skills outside the Classroom
This review compiles and critically evaluates empirical research on vocabulary instruction in English Language Teaching (ELT) over the past five years, focusing on the role of vocabulary classroom instruction and after-school vocabulary acquisition in learning. The rationale for this review is a call for English Language (EL) teachers and researchers to propose theories about the design of instruction and activities for vocabulary learning in the classroom. The review draws on the principles of the Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) approach and collects relevant studies through a systematic search of databases and a manual search of relevant journals. The results indicate that vocabulary instruction is taught in a small percentage of classrooms, with little emphasis and classroom instruction time. In addition, out-of-class matters where vocabulary is practiced and repetitively practiced, and the format and interaction of classroom instruction guides students' practice outside the classroom. The study concludes that for different teaching methods and approaches, out-of-classroom settings can enhance and help students' vocabulary learning and suggests that more research and teaching methods should be used to guide and enhance students’ interest and efficiency in learning vocabulary. The review also calls for more research on classroom instruction to promote extracurricular practices in teaching English vocabulary in primary and secondary schools.
Copyright (c) 2024 Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Judicial Reconciliation after the Bankruptcy Ruling in Arab Systems
Judicial reconciliation is one of the most successful friendly means of resolving creditors' disputes with the bankrupt merchant after a bankruptcy ruling against him, especially since it is a means that enables the merchant to return to his commercial activities. Therefore, it is considered a means of stabilizing commercial transactions, the effects of which are reflected on the national economy. Therefore, this study aims to present, analyze and interpret the legal rules related to judicial reconciliation in Arab systems. In this context, the researcher reviewed the legal texts in Arab bankruptcy systems. The study was based on the descriptive analytical comparative approach. The study reached several results, the most important of which is that Arab systems agreed to codify the rules of judicial reconciliation for the bankrupt merchant after a bankruptcy ruling against him, although they differed in the procedures followed for that.
Factors Influencing Social Workers' Relationship to Their Clients: A Test of Social Psychological Theories
The study examines the application of general social psychological theories on the development of relationships between people (mere exposure effect, similarity-attraction effect, triangular theory of love) to the special case of the relationship between counselor and client. Two hundred and twenty-eight social workers from Germany took part in the online survey on their relationship with their clients. The results show that (1) the degree of familiarity with clients increases with the frequency of contact with them, (2) the degree of perceived similarity with clients increases with the quality of the relationship, and (3) social workers' tendency to experience romantic feelings toward clients is influenced by the desire for emotional and physical closeness and the willingness to form a long-term commitment. Finally, the implications of the results for shaping the relationship in social work are discussed.
Life in the Ruins: Memory, Historical Constructivism and the False Certainties of Identity
Ruins seem to be empty and mute but are often a site, context and occasion for improvising memory and identities. Improvisations of all sorts are layered onto ruins, diverse styles of meaning-making. Appalachian mountaineers’ promulgate a triumphalist history, occasioned by their perception of a ruin of the past they would rather forget. Moroccans articulate to outsiders a sedimented history that utilizes diverse, fragmentary pasts strategically remembered. Hopi histories of migration overlay long-term residence among past ruins. In diverse ways, ruins provoke meaning-creation. Ruins represent pensée sauvage, extant forms of knowledge or established patterns that become contexts for the manufacture of improvisations and histories-in-the-making, through the workings of pensée normade, the assembly of novel modes of history and memory, mobile refigurations that liquify and may critique the ruins of the past. Pensée sauvage and pensée nomade are dialectically related. Ruins are cues that invite new stories and practices.
Government Supported Apprenticeships in England: A Transitions Regime Perspective
This paper uses a transitions regime framework to track the development of government supported apprenticeships in England from the 1990s to the 2020s. During this period the apprenticeship programme grew from around 30,000 to 330,000 starts per year. Traditional apprenticeships were targeted at a specific age group who were entering a narrow band of skilled occupations. After three-plus years of training the recipients were intended to be ‘skilled for life’. Today’s government supported apprentices can be any age, last for any period from six months to four or five years, and at are all levels from basic to post-graduate. It is argued that this outcome arises from allowing education and labour markets to distribute government support, and is helping to align England’s youth transition regime with the realities of working lives in the twenty-first century.
Measuring the Impacts of Social Media on Daily Life from Millennials to Generation Alpha
The intensification and the progressive development and evolution of social media over the last decade have radically changed the way in which we live, interact with others, purchase and advertise products, and it even alters people’s sense and vocabulary, making certain concepts and words popular, or better said, viral. Social media have the undeniable merit of breaking down barriers and distances, enabling immediate interaction between individuals who are physically far apart. Furthermore, social media are the most frequented virtual place in the world, considering that there are now 5 billion active users, approximately 60% of the global population, which according to official UN estimates, has recently surpassed 8 billion people. These impressive statistics were shared by Sky TG24, which published studies by monitoring companies Meltwater and the agency “We Are Social”. Social media are no longer used solely to bring people closer or to provide futile entertainment. It is obvious that they are changing our habits, as they take up a significant portion of our time and are increasingly used by companies and business owners to advertise goods and services. Social media have also given rise to full-time jobs such as Social Media Managers, and the so-called “Influencers”, “Instagrammers” and “Content creators”, Bloggers, Copywriters, and it has also given birth to the social porn industry, which has optimized profits through self-made content. Of course, social media also present significant challenges, copyright violations of online content, privacy violations, identity theft, the spread of defamatory and violent comments on “feed, home” etc. With the awareness that there is no turning back, this study aims to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of using social media, and to investigate user preferences regarding the consumption of content shared online across various platforms, with particular attention to TikTok, which is currently the most used social media by young people. This study seeks to provide a preliminary understanding of the phenomenon, by examining data from the initial responses to a questionnaire shared online via the Google Form platform, especially through “bottom-up” responses regarding the preferences of a sample of young users aged from 11 to 30. Clearly, there is no claim to provide absolute results. Measuring the impacts that consider the improvement/implementation of services offered to digital content consumers allows to assess the relationship between creators and users through specially designed evaluations, such as Conjoint Analysis, which uses questionnaires administered to a random sample of users.
Acceptance of Neologisms in the Omani Society
Neologisms have recently become part of everyday speech. The rapid progress in internet-based communication and changes in society, particularly in culture and technology, appear to have influenced its acceptance. Therefore, this study examines some English words that have been integrated into the Omani colloquial Arabic and are considered neologisms. This study seeks to gain insight into the perspectives of the Omani society on the use of neologisms. In addition, it analyzes the morphophonemic and semantic changes that occurred after the neologisms were integrated into the Arabic lexicon. Two phases are involved in this study. The theoretical phase deals with defining neologisms and their emergence within Omani society. The interactive phase is where data from the questionnaire and interview responses are discussed. One of the most significant outcomes of this study is that neologisms can generally be considered a positive addition to the participants’ everyday speech. Furthermore, this study reveals that social media is the most common context in which neologisms are used in the Omani context. Among the other outcomes is the observation of changes in neologisms to adapt them to the reception language and the new context.
A Comparative Study of the Structure of Sesotho and siSwati Forms Used in Whatsapp Chats
Social media platforms like WhatsApp have introduced new communication styles, including the use of informal abbreviations and shortened phrases. This study investigated how this trend has affected Sesotho and siSwati languages. Specifically, the paper explored the types of short forms used by Sesotho and siSwati speakers in WhatsApp, as well as whether such platforms could influence the structural aspects of the two languages. Using text analysis as a research instrument, the study analysed short forms used in WhatsApp messages from two demographics in each language: 20-34-year-old young adults and 35-60-year-old adults. The sample for this study was constituted by the selected university student groups with younger demographics, and that of the adults represented by church and local residents’ groups. For a gender variable, each group included both males and females. Based on the communicative approach, the analysis revealed that Sesotho and siSwati speakers used short, single-word, phrasal and sentential forms in their chats of the social media. Interestingly, both languages shared certain characteristics, while others were unique to each language. Shared forms included consonant clusters, letter and number combinations and prefix omissions, with the youth, more frequently than adults, reportedly using such shortcuts. The study would, therefore, conclude that WhatsApp communication styles likely influence Sesotho and siSwati, potentially leading to the integration of some short forms into the orthographic systems of the two languages.
Understanding the Intentions of Young Egyptian to Continue Using OTT Platforms
This research paper explores the determinants of Over the Top (OTT) platform intention to use and examine demographic factors such as gender, Education, and Age. The data was collected primarily using questionnaires administered to 227 Young users of OTT video streaming platforms in Egypt. The key determinant of OTT platforms includes Ease of Effort, Content Quality, Habitual Behavior, Value Expectancy, Social Ties and Facilitating Conditions. The market of OTT platforms in Egypt in growing and is expected to gain higher momentum in the coming few years. The outcomes of the study will help the managers in comprehending and devising different strategies for consumers of OTT video streaming platforms. The study is one of the early attempts and most recent aiming to understand the factors affecting the continue intention to use of OTT platforms in Egypt. The results show that Ease of Effort, Content Quality and Facilitating Conditions has a positive effect on the continue intention to use of OTT platforms among young Egyptians.
Early Modern Protests against the Tyrant: The Radicalization of the Political Discourse in the Early Sixteenth Century: Ulrich Von Hutten
In the late Middle Ages and early modern age, political commentators increasingly raised their voice against abusive rulers, attacking them as dictators and even as tyrants. They drew, of course, from the ancient tradition of criticism of the ruler, but they had their own cases to complain about. Scholarship has so far investigated numerous treatises and pamphlets by the leading philosophers and theologians from that time, active particularly in Italy, France, and England. In this study, the focus will rest, by contrast, on the significant contribution to this anti-tyrant discourse by the German humanist Ulrich von Hutten (d. 1523), his Phalarismus. While the author was motivated to write this sharp critique of tyranny in response to a major conflict affecting his own family, this dialog pamphlet, structurally somewhat indebted to Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia (ca. 1320), laid the foundation for this genre of political criticism in early modern Germany, which, however, came to full fruition not until the eighteenth century. We can thus recognize Ulrich von Hutten as a major contributor to this European discourse driven by humanist intellectuals who effectively succeeded in exposing the evil nature of a tyrant well ahead of their successors during the age of the Enlightenment. To what extent von Hutten’s work became a source of inspiration for them remains an open-ended question.
Material Repertories in Archaeological Sites of the Northern Lowlands of Tucuman (Argentina)
The archaeological materiality recorded in two pre-Hispanic sites located in the lowlands of the province of Tucumán (Argentina) is presented. The recovered archaeological materials allow us to establish relations of obtaining, production and circulation of non-native and native goods for the region.
Deuteronomic Redaction and the Evolution of the Decalogues in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5
The author proposes reconstructing the oldest form of the Decalogue by a comparison of the two versions of the Decalogue in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. The method utilized works back to the original form by gradually eliminated those portions that differ in the two versions of the Decalogue and then eliminating what appears to have been later editorial additions.
Human-Made and Natural Catastrophes Reflected in Western Literature: From Antiquity to the Present
We continue to live in an academic world where the natural sciences and the humanities are clearly demarcated from each other. However, recent years have witnessed a significant rapprochement, especially in light of the enormous need to come to terms with natural disasters that continuously strike human societies all over the world throughout time in scientific and intellectual terms. There is no doubt that we must understand those as precisely as possible, but there is also no doubt that both poets and literary scholars have always been in charge of probing and channeling the human responses and to contextualizing the catastrophic conditions in a wider context, and this also philosophically and religiously. While pre-modern literature seems to have responded to natural catastrophes only tentatively, since the nineteenth century at the latest writers, poets, and artists increasingly have interacted with those disasters and reflected on their impacts in human life more in depth.
Analysis of Child Labor in Artisanal Gold Mines in the Rural Commune of Fourou, Cercle De Kadiolo, Sikasso Region, Mali
Mining is one of the most dangerous work sectors in the world, or child labor is frequent in the artisanal mines. This study attempts to analyze child labor in the artisanal gold mines in the rural commune of Fourou, cercle de Kadiolo, Mali. Data were collected from a random sampling of 120 children working on the commune's different artisanal gold mining sites. The study revealed that 74.2% of children are between 15 to17 year old and 95% are favorable to this job. 45.8% think that the work is unsuitable for children. 83.6% consider health and safety conditions on site to be deplorable. 85.1% said that it’s due to the family poverty that they work in the mines, with the risk of health problems, injury and collapsing galleries (pits). For them, this job enables them to earn an income, but they faced to verbal, physical and economic violence.