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Topic Review
Meditation and Techno-Mindfulness
Mindful meditation has discernible effects on enhancing the mind’s focus, proving to “impact various components of attention, although the precise effects may depend on the meditation style practiced and the level of experience of the practitioner”. This success has precipitated the swift adoption of mindfulness as a therapeutic instrument. During its process of medicalization, which has turned meditation into a clinical product suitable for the therapeutic forms of Western biomedicine, mindfulness is also undergoing a further transformation, one that progressively integrates it into the techno-medical and digitalizing aspect of modern therapies. 
  • 154
  • 09 Mar 2024
Topic Review
The Landscape of Microfinance Institutions
The provision of microfinance for the poor in developing countries has received much attention from politicians, economists, development workers and academics, especially since the 1990s, including a special issue recently published in this journal.
  • 220
  • 08 Mar 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
The Lost Shantytowns of Barcelona
Shantytowns still existed in many of Southern Europe’s major cities in the second half of the 20th century, although many have now been demolished. The purpose of this article is to highlight the history and evolution of some of the main shantytowns that remained in Barcelona in the mid-1970s, track their subsequent demolition, and reflect on the fate of the shanty dwellers. This form of self-build housing, usually lacking in basic services, played a vital role in providing shelter for immigrant families and the urban poor. A strong neighbourhood identity existed in many of these shantytowns, and national and local policies that aimed at their demolition and the re-housing of residents, often in low-quality housing blocks, proved problematic. The shantytowns studied here are La Perona, the Tres Turons, Campo de la Bota, and Ramon Casellas, which together comprised over 2000 shanty dwellings in the 1970s. Drawing on photographs taken at the time and existing literature, and using recent images from Google Earth, the demise of these shantytowns is examined, and the policies and plans that determined their fate are discussed. This article finds that the shanty dwellers experienced mixed fortunes, some being forcibly removed and re-housed in tower blocks with associated social-economic problems, whilst others played an active part in the design of replacement housing, implemented in situ where the shanty dwellings once existed. This article contributes to existing studies on shantytowns in Barcelona, which received scant attention from academics at the time, and which only now are being recognised as an important aspect of Barcelona’s urban history.
  • 332
  • 08 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Dynamical Systems Research in Psychotherapy
In psychotherapy research, the first applications of dynamical systems research (DSR) date back to the 1990s. Over time, DSR has developed three main lines of research: the study of oscillations in synchronization; the study of oscillations between stability and flexibility of process variables (S–F oscillations); the mathematical modeling to analyze the evolution of psychotherapy process.
  • 99
  • 05 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Digital Inclusivity
In the fast-paced digital economy, stakeholders across regions, industries and organisational typologies are recognising the growing significance of adopting customer-centric digital strategies. Inexorably, this necessitates the comprehension of consumer behaviours across a diverse customer spectrum, including individuals with disabilities (PwD).
  • 150
  • 05 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Culturally Relevant STEM (CReST)
Convergence education, driven by compelling or complex socio-scientific problems, is an approach to bring cultural relevance into secondary STEM education. National trends show the need to increase the STEM workforce by leveraging educational research and innovative practices within the secondary level to increase student interest prior to graduating high school.
  • 115
  • 04 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Empowering Vocational Students
Vocational Education and Training (VET) faces significant challenges in equipping individuals for modern workplaces, which increasingly require digital literacy and Computational Thinking (CT) skills. A methodology primarily involves a systematic literature review, resulting in the identification of 29 relevant papers. Through qualitative content analysis, researchers develop a CT integration framework that connects CT practices and integration elements to the engineering design process, while highlighting the VET context. Arguably, the innovative aspect of this framework lies in its core dimensions of harnessing computational power for enhanced efficiency. Raising the question of whether computers can optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of specific tasks is paramount for addressing challenges in technology-rich environments. Therefore, this inquiry merits unwavering attention at every stage of the process. The proposed framework provides educators with a structured approach to identify integration opportunities and help prepare students for multifaceted vocational careers. Furthermore, other key findings underscore the inherently interdisciplinary nature of VET, the growing demand for STEM competencies, and the transformative potential of CT integration. Implications emphasize the need for further research, supportive policies, and practical CT integration.
  • 159
  • 01 Mar 2024
Topic Review
The Dravidian Race in Tamil Social Thought
In the closing decades of the 19th century, a wide range of Tamil authors and public speakers in colonial India became acutely interested in the notion of a Dravidian “race”. This conception of a Dravidian race, rooted in European racial and philological scholarship on the peoples of South India, became an important symbol of Tamil cultural, religious, and social autonomy in colonial and post-colonial Tamil thought, art, politics, and literature.
  • 201
  • 01 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Relationship between Optimism and Subjective Well-Being
Positive psychology has attracted increasing attention from many scholars worldwide. There is a considerable body of knowledge on the relationship between optimism and subjective well-being (SWB). 
  • 135
  • 01 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Employer Branding and Employee Retention in Saudi Arabia
Employer branding is positively and significantly related to relational psychological contracts and employee retention. Furthermore, a relational psychological contract significantly mediates the relationship between employer branding and employee retention.
  • 199
  • 01 Mar 2024
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