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In recent decades, attempts to create and argue a new ontology of existence that could provide a robust alternative to the mainstream physicalist metaphysics have been made in science and philosophy. A new book by Bernardo Kastrup (2019, 312 p.), a well-known specialist in the field of philosophy of mind and neuroscience of consciousness, offers the author's conceptually clear and rigorous formulation of the philosophical system. The author proves that appearance and reality in ontology are fundamentally experiential. A universal phenomenal consciousness is the sole ontological primitive, which patterns of excitation constitute existence, and a human being is dissociated mental complexes of this universal consciousness, surrounded like islands by the ocean of its mentation. Kastrup's idea of the World has an idealist ontological underpinning. The author contrasts his vision of the world with the existing ideas of the world perception, such as physicalism, microexperientialism and cosmopsychism. The quality of the argument, which is given in the book, suggests the revival of the philosophy of idealism as the next paradigm, according to which a form of universal mind will be viewed as nature's sole fundamental entity.

The article offers a psychological approach to the analysis of the situation of ethnic Germans in the South of Ukraine in 1920s. It was a period when the policy of the new power intended to change the self-consciousness of the Germans. The legislative actions of the Russian state and then of the Soviet power had a negative consequences for both local economic and political-moral position of this category of population. The famine had objective reasons: history, policy, natural disaster. The author uses sources from the state region archives of Nikolaev, Kherson, Dnipro and Kiev to show her personal perceptions of the events. She tells about the policy of the Soviet government, its often criminal actions, biased attitude, manifested against German speaking population. The new approach is to identify the perception of hunger and all that was associated with it by the German population themselves. The author shows that the mobilization of the German communities was their way to overcome the tragedy and survivе. The time period of the famine has been clarified.

AbstractThis article genealogically traces the historical development of democracy in Egypt and the military and Islamists' involvement in politics since the British occupation in Egypt in 1882, following the semi‐independence in 1922, through the 1952 revolution, and up to the revolutionary waves of the Arab Spring of January 25, 2011 and June 30, 2013. In this article, the author provides perceptual and analytical insight into the outcome of the Arab Spring of 2011 within the complicated realities of Egypt's politics during the transition to democracy, where the military and Islamists are competing to retain power in order to shape Egypt's future. The author argues that it is too early to make a judgmental argument that the transition to democracy has failed since the process of democratization is long and not linear, with periods of political trajectories while adapting in response to national, regional, and international events, dynamics, and forces. The research concludes that the coping models of democracy from outside of the Egyptian context may not work. Egypt should develop its own model of democracy based on an all stakeholders consensus accompanied by an incremental process of demilitarizing and desecuritizing the nation.

The paper discusses the position of women in Romani society. The author presents the var- ious roles a romni (Romani for woman) plays. She refers to the rules of the moral and ethical code (romanipen) that significantly affects female behavior, determines the relationship be- tween females and males, and assigns women a lower position in society than men. The paper also discusses the 'impurities' that constitute a specific weapon Romani women can wield against men. The author observes the changes that are taking place in the world of modern romnis. They are increasingly more educated, professionally active and make independent decisions con- cerning their own future. It should be borne in mind, however, that they continue to live in a closed community that guards its traditions, language and privacy. To change the life of Romani women would mean their leaving this community and abandoning the fundamental principles of Romani life, which is difficult. Romani women do not struggle for these princi- ples to be abandoned completely, thus giving them equal rights. They continue to guard their traditions and hearth and home.

The author reflects on the issue of epistemological limitations in the process of media imaginings of political reality. Using reference theory and description theory the author tries to answer the question of what makes up the image of political reality as verbalized in media coverage. His conclusion is that attempts to reflect the factual image in the media presentation of politics produce a specific politico-journalistic construction of this reality, the apparent reality. Therefore, the category of truth in media communications concerning the field of poli- tics usually fails. One should thus expect that this traditional realism, which is expressed on the one hand by the factual nature of the media, and on the other by the morality of the media, will constitute a pillar that supports the image of political reality that is presented, interpreted and commented on in the media. In principle, this should not be a naïve realism, giving priority to individual cognitive spontaneity rather than to reflection, analysis and experience, or a spiritual realism seeking the truth about reality through human spirituality.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which an intervention lesson could help with elementary pre-service teachers' critical racial knowledge around school segregation.Design/methodology/approachThe author, an Elementary Social Studies Methods Instructor, developed and modeled lessons of "doing race" in social studies as one of the ways to assist elementary pre-service teachers with critical racial knowledge and commitment to do race in their future classrooms. This paper focuses on one of the modeled lessons, which centered on the topic of school segregation.FindingsBased on the analysis of class discussion and student work, the author documented the ways in which the modeled lesson engaged pre-service teachers in disrupting the dominant discourses and teaching practices on the topic of school segregation and developing the critical understandings needed to successfully teach about race and racism in elementary classrooms.Originality/valueThe paper details actions meant to demonstrate to elementary pre-service teachers the benefits of an elementary social studies topic viewed and taught through a critical race lens. In doing so, it calls attention to the possibilities and limitations of a single lesson that targets antiracist practices.

Most historically and predominantly white institutions (HPWIs) now desire some number of black students on their campuses. However, recent theoretical scholarship suggests that HPWIs' desire for and willingness to embrace black students is predicated on their racial palatability. The theory of intraracial discrimination stipulates that white gatekeepers are increasingly inclined to screen blacks to "weed out" those they perceive as too concerned with race and racism. In this study, the author assessed whether there was evidence of intraracial discrimination within the HPWI admissions regime. The data were derived through an audit of 517 white admissions counselors, employed at the same number of institutions, who received inquiry e-mails from fictitious black high school students who presented as more or less racially salient. The findings reveal that white admissions counselors are more responsive to black students who present as deracialized and racially apolitical than they are to those who evince a commitment to antiracism and racial justice. These findings provide convincing support for the theory of intraracial discrimination within the HPWI admissions regime. The author concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of these findings.

Drawing upon interviews with 40 parents in Cincinnati, Ohio, the author explores how "exposure to diversity," an implicit racial socialization practice, has become a defining feature of how some middle-class white parents teach their children about race and reflect on what it means to be a good white parent. Exposure to diversity involves white parents' active efforts to expose their children to people of color via trips to multiracial parks, enrollment in multiracial schools, or residence in multiracial neighborhoods. The author argues that white parents' efforts are informed by their adherence to both a "diversity ideology" wherein racial diversity is frequently, but not always, framed as a positive social dynamic that enriches their family's white life, and a middle-class desire to craft a high-status white child via distinction-oriented parenting practices. Taken together, white middle-class parents pursue an exposure-to-diversity strategy because they believe, whether consciously or not, that diversity provides them and their children with the means to facilitate small-scale social change and to craft a comfortable, open-minded white child who possesses racial and class distinction.

Purpose. To turn to the diaries and journalistic works by Leo Tolstoy, to study the content and method of his religious and ethical search. To doubt the faithfulness of his interpretation of the evangelical message of Christ. Theoretical basis. The author proceeded from the necessity of a dialectical understanding of the concepts of nonviolence, mercy, justice and a cultural-historical focus on the possibilities of society in realizing the spirituality principles. Originality. The author focuses on the unilateral nature of the methodology that Leo Tolstoy uses to deny violence, as well as on the ambiguous role of Tolstoy's ideology in the morality of society. Conclusions. The spiritual activities an individual person is able to do and that are instructive for society from the point of view of its moral influence may not be sufficient means for educating moral responsibility in a society as a whole. Tolstoy's methodological approach to justifying the absoluteness of nonviolence principle is one-sided and not productive for a true interpretation of the spiritual nature of the Christ's message about love and mercy.

The research analyzes the social and economic problems of the North Caucasus and the possibilities of their overcoming due to the design of the spatial development strategy of the Russian Federation. The author reveals the main program documents: the Federal Law on Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation and The Strategy for Social and Economic Development of the North Caucasus Federal District until 2025. The investigation identifies the challenges of implementing the tasks in the North Caucasus stated in the program documents, i.e. the unresolved land issue, security problems, and the need to modernize the social and production infrastructure. Besides, the social and economic statistical data are provided; the priority areas for regional development are presented. They include tourism, agro-industrial complex, oil refining, and production potential. The author notes that, in order to reveal the growth points, it is important to take into account the specific nature of the region, promote social modernization and integration of the region's inhabitants into the Russian society, and create a positive image of the region under review as well.

While exploring the map of European family models, this essay aims to appraise the robustness of the category of "transitional zone," that is, the intermediary area between Eastern and Western Europe, reinterpreting it as a typology of regions with a common transition period from monolithic complex forms to multifaceted societies, where the "simple"/"stem" family gradually prevails. While an intermediate value in a scale does not elucidate anything new, an "intermediate" type in a typology approach is endowed with its own semantic space. The author pinpoints some critical issues in a "gradient-dependent" approach. Gradients are not typologies, and reasoning by gradients generates unanticipated effects. Typologies of family patterns can be inserted into three-dimensional space, and a meta-analysis of narration can add precious value. Last but not least, a map of European family systems must have historical depth. As a consequence, the author draws two time-lagged fault lines and two corresponding "transitional zones" in between. From this standpoint, the idea of transition should be viewed within the historical period of change from "joint" to "simple" family systems, in the broad sense of the terms.

The paper provides a review of the current situation in Russian industrial parks and management and investment attraction practices of other countries. Every year the number of industrial parks in Russian regions is increasing, state and legislative support is growing. Despite this fact, the attractiveness of industrial parks in Russia is not so high as the attractiveness of similar structures abroad. Identifying the fundamentals of Russian industrial park management, the author considers three management models: special, independent, and hybrid and believes that the first one is typical for Russia, since domestic industrial parks are dynamically funded under the state budget. However, none of Russian industrial parks does not correspond to the classical management models, which is caused by a number of reasons. Summarizing international practices of the industrial park management, the author concludes that several administration schemes can be applied in this country in order to attract both Russian and international investors. The analysis of the integrated capacity of the industrial park attractiveness enables investors to invest deliberately according to the development program and considering visible problems in this field.

AbstractCreating safe environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ) youth has become a significant public health concern. Despite the disparities in the risk factors associated with identifying as a member of the LGBTQ community, the theoretical frameworks for understanding these issues, particularly within criminology, have been limited. The purpose of this work is to review the historical treatment of gender and sexual orientation within criminology. More specifically, this work reviews how gender was introduced into criminology through the work of feminist criminology, followed by the need for theorization that further analyzed sexual orientation. This then became the focus of queer criminology. After tracing the historical development of gender and sexual orientation, the author uses the theoretical foundations of both to show how it applies to recognizing the issues faced by LGBTQ youth. Finally, the author discusses why consideration of these frameworks is paramount in understanding the issues faced by LGBTQ youth, as well as how such consideration and understanding can help mend the existing gap in providing safer environments for LGBTQ youth.

AbstractThis article draws from data collected through interviews with the following groups: big data and/or precision farm equipment firm employees from numerous countries; commodity farmers in the USA who use big data; individuals from the US‐based Right to Repair movement; and farmers associated with Farm Hack from the USA and the UK. With this as the empirical backdrop, the author interrogates the concept of 'access' by way of the phenomena of justice, ontology, and claims making – emergent themes to come out of the qualitative data. This in turn allows the author to conceptually, analytically, and empirically unpack the concept into the following three categories: access, property, and sovereignty. A framework then emerges to talk about these socio‐technical assemblages in terms of what they do and the political ontologies they engender, recognising, for instance, that while access can afford individuals and groups benefits it can also detract from an individual's and/or group's ability to flourish. Being able to identify those practices of agro‐digital governance that afford sovereignty can inform policies and programmes by nurturing an understanding the worlds they make possible.