Frontiers in Sociology

How much less is enough? A reflexive perspective on the theory of simplified information processing by Voigt et al. (2025)

2026-09-18 · Opinion

Swen Koerner, Mario S. Staller

Beyond gentrification: urban rent and foundational liveability in Southern European intermediate cities

2026-09-18 · Original Research

Angelo Salento, Vanessa Corrado, Carlotta Ebbreo, Vincenzo Latronico, Antonello Podda, Valeria Saiu

Contemporary urban scholarship frequently interprets transformations of urban space through the category of gentrification. This article argues that, in Southern European non-competitive intermediate cities, urban rent – understood here as encompassing both land and property rent – provides a more effective interpretive lens. Through a comparative analysis of Cagliari, Catania, and Lecce, we show that intense processes of property valorization can unfold even in the absence of significant displacement and social replacement. Drawing on the tradition of Italian critical planning and sociology, we distinguish between marginal land rent – the rent generated by urban expansion through the conversion of agricultural or peri-urban land into developable urban land – and differential rent, associated with the valorization of the existing built environment. The analysis highlights the continuity between these two cycles: peripheral expansion contributed to the depopulation and devaluation of historic centres, creating the conditions for subsequent processes of selective upgrading, functional conversion, and touristification. The findings show that the rent gap tends to close primarily through the replacement of urban uses rather than the replacement of residents. The contemporary valorization of historic centres is in fact based on the progressive erosion of residential functions and their reorientation towards tourist, recreational, and commercial uses. Although these processes do not necessarily take the form of classical gentrification, they have significant effects on the foundational liveability of intermediate cities. The article therefore proposes urban rent, rather than gentrification, as the primary category for interpreting transformations in Euro-Mediterranean intermediate cities. It also shows how these dynamics are supported by a broad social coalition invested in property valorization, corresponding to the real-estate bloc (blocco edilizio) described by the Italian critical tradition.

Ecofeminist heterotopias: gendered ecologies, memory, and ecological displacement in Elif Shafak’s There Are Rivers in the Sky

2026-09-17 · Original Research

Harini S, Patchainayagi S

Ecofeminism reveals how ecological degradation and water insecurity have a profound impact on women and marginalized communities, emphasizing that ecology, power, displacement, and social inequality are deeply interconnected. The article proposes “ecofeminist heterotopias” as an analytical framework combining ecofeminism, Astrida Neimanis’ Hydrofeminism, and Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia to study how rivers function as gendered counter-spaces in the novel There Are Rivers in the Sky (2024). The research emphasizes that rivers in the novel do not simply function as ecological elements but are material, spatial, and relational sites where gendered violence, ecological precarity, displacement, and memory converge. Through a close analysis of the select text, the study examines the interconnected narratives of Arthur, Narin, and Zaleekhah traversing different ecofeminist heterotopias like the Thames, the Tigris, and hidden ‘ghost rivers’ across Victorian London, ancient Mesopotamia, contemporary Iraq and London. The rivers function simultaneously as archives of trauma, resistance, and cultural memory, illustrating the ways in which women and marginalized communities like the Yazidis, face the consequences of ecological destruction and forced displacement. By employing Astrida Neimanis’ Hydrofeminism and Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, the paper analyses how rivers as spaces that juxtapose incompatible temporalities and geographies material and spatial mediums while revealing the gendered facets of water crisis. This article posits that “ecofeminist heterotopias” provides a distinct analytical contribution to ecofeminist studies by depicting water not only as an ecological body but as an archive of feminist memory and a site of resistance against ecological and gendered violence.

International women’s day in Nigeria: the paradox of gender visibility and inequality

2026-09-17 · Original Research

Samson Uchenna Eze

Nigeria’s celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) has evolved from the era of federal government observances in the 1980s to corporate commemorations. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, where IWD is celebrated annually amid a huge number of women affected by gender-based discrimination. In decades of expanding women’s awareness, IWD has witnessed a mix of celebrations, commercial fanfare, and protests. It has become a platform for belonging politics, show of achievement, and commercial mobilization. In all of this, the gender gap remains grossly disproportionate. Amid many challenges facing women in Nigeria, IWD is celebrated with images and presence of accomplished women. This study argues that Nigerian government appropriates IWD into state legitimation exercises and uses the day to publicize social welfare programs without addressing the underlying gender inequality. In addition, corporate commercialization of IWD in Nigeria has not addressed structural inequality. Demonstration of achievement for a few women is not tantamount to overall women’s liberation, and Nigeria’s IWD often substitutes the show of individual achievements for collective liberation. Drawing on a focus group discussion with twelve Nigerian women and field semi-structured interviews conducted during IWD events in Nigeria, the study situates its analysis on women’s testimonies. This study concludes that while flamboyant IWD celebrations are good for women in their own terms, Nigerian women must shun patriarchal femocracy and sustain protests given the marginal position of women in the nation.

Why do Ukrainian refugee women remain in a politically ambivalent host country? The case of Hungary

2026-09-16 · Original Research

Éva Berde, Andrea Csapó-Horváth, Sándor Remsei

IntroductionThe prolonged displacement of Ukrainians after the full-scale Russian invasion has raised questions about why refugees remain in particular host countries even when the broader political environment is not consistently welcoming. Hungary provides a distinctive case in which increasingly exclusionary national political communication coexisted with legal protection, local assistance, and relatively stable everyday conditions. The aim of this study is to understand how Ukrainian refugee women made sense of their continued residence in Hungary and how they interpreted the relationship between national political communication and their everyday experiences.MethodsThe study uses a qualitative longitudinal design based on two rounds of interviews. The first round, conducted in late 2024 and early 2025, included eleven Ukrainian refugee women who had already lived in Hungary for at least two and a half years. The second round was conducted in December 2025. Six participants were interviewed directly, while factual status information was available for the remaining five.ResultsThe analysis showed that continued residence developed gradually rather than resulting from a single decision to settle permanently. Participants’ accounts highlighted employment, pre-existing family and labor migration connections, geographical proximity to Ukraine, children’s schooling, and the organization of everyday life as circumstances associated with increasing stability. At the same time, pessimistic expectations concerning security, reconstruction, and future living conditions in Ukraine made return appear unrealistic in the near term. Follow-up information showed that ten of the eleven participants remained in Hungary, while the six women interviewed directly expressed little immediate intention either to move onward to another country or to return to Ukraine. These women were aware of increasingly hostile political messages concerning Ukraine, yet such rhetoric was not generally reflected in their established interpersonal relations and everyday experiences. Temporary protection under EU rules also helped preserve lawful residence and access to employment and essential services.DiscussionThe findings indicate that understanding refugees’ continued residence requires attention to how they perceive and navigate everyday living conditions, household circumstances, legal security, and available alternatives, alongside national political communication.

Gendered domestic labor and family leadership: associations with work–family difficulty and expectations for daughters

2026-09-16 · Original Research

Aknur Imankul, Bayan Smagambet

This article examines whether a female-concentrated division of unpaid domestic labor is associated with a reported household financial-management arrangement, normative endorsement of husband/breadwinner headship, work–family difficulty, perceived barriers, and expectations for daughters in contemporary Kazakhstan. We analyze data from a 2025 national quota survey covering all 17 regions of Kazakhstan and its three cities of republican status (N = 2,400; 1,638 married or cohabiting respondents) using binary logistic regression on outcome-specific complete cases (N = 1,460–1,523). A one-standard-deviation increase in the domestic-labor index was associated with higher odds that the husband managed the household budget (OR = 1.92), endorsement of the husband or breadwinner as head of household (OR = 1.40), difficulty reconciling work and family (OR = 1.26), and marriage-oriented expectations for daughters (OR = 1.21). The association with naming domestic labor as a barrier to women's participation was not statistically significant after adjustment. The leadership association was stronger among men. Because respondents were individuals, the outcomes capture reported arrangements and attitudes rather than couple-level behavior, and the cross-sectional design precludes causal inference. The results are robust to excluding “difficult to answer” responses rather than coding them as the reference category.

The role of social media in enhancing health awareness, social support and educational progress among university students in Oman during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey

2026-09-15 · Original Research

Emad Farouk Saleh, Wafa Said Almamari, Saudi Mohamed Hassan Abdelreheem, Ahmed Thabet Helal Ibrahim, Magdy Mohammed Mustafa, Hosni Ibrahim Abdelghani

This study examined the role of social media in promoting health awareness, strengthening social support, and maintaining educational continuity among university students during the early stage of the COVID-19 lockdown in Oman. It also explored the major challenges associated with social media use during this unprecedented public health emergency. A descriptive-analytical design was employed using an online survey administered to 380 undergraduate students at Sultan Qaboos University during the suspension of face-to-face teaching in April and May 2020. The findings indicate that social media played an important role in enhancing students’ awareness of COVID-19-related health issues, with a high overall awareness score (M = 40.92, SD = 5.47; relative strength = 85%). Students also reported substantial social benefits (M = 50.15, SD = 8.19; relative strength = 84%), particularly in strengthening social responsibility, maintaining communication with family and friends, and reducing the effects of social isolation. In addition, social media contributed positively to educational continuity during the lockdown (M = 30.80, SD = 7.89), especially by facilitating access to learning materials, communication with instructors, and the submission of assignments. Despite these benefits, students identified several important challenges (M = 34.02, SD = 5.67; relative strength = 77%), including the spread of misinformation and rumors, unreliable online content, high internet costs, and technical and connectivity problems. The findings highlight the value of social media as a complementary tool for health communication, social connectedness, and educational continuity during public health emergencies. They also provide insights that may inform digital communication strategies in higher education and public health campaigns. Although the study did not specifically investigate social work students or practitioners, the findings may also inform the development of digital competencies and electronic social work education for crisis preparedness. Further research should examine the role of social workers and social work education in emergencies and disaster contexts.

Determinants of social health in later life: the roles of family integration, social participation, and psychosocial well-being

2026-09-15 · Original Research

Ashifa Kariveliparambil, Fatma Sila Ayan, Alphonsa Kurian, Neethu Varghese, Maharishi Ranganathan, Jobi Babu

IntroductionPopulation aging has intensified scholarly attention towards the social dimensions of well-being in later life. While previous research has largely emphasized physical health and economic security, social health—reflecting individuals’ ability to maintain meaningful relationships and social participation—remains comparatively underexplored, particularly among older adults in rural communities. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates how family integration, social participation, and psychosocial well-being contribute to social health in later life.MethodsWe conducted a quantitative, cross-sectional survey of 386 adults aged ≥60 years. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that measured family integration, social participation, psychosocial well-being, and social health, each operationalized through multi-item Likert-type scales. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression analysis were employed to examine the relationships among the study variables.ResultsThe findings indicate that all three determinants significantly predict social health among older adults. Social participation emerged as the strongest predictor (β = 0.33, p < 0.001), followed by family integration (β = 0.29, p < 0.001) and psychosocial well-being (β = 0.27, p < 0.001). The regression model explained a substantial proportion of the variance in social health (R2 = 0.337), suggesting that relational and psychosocial resources play a critical role in shaping social well-being in later life.DiscussionThe results highlight that interactions among family relationships, community engagement, and psychological resources shape social health in later life. Strengthening opportunities for social participation, reinforcing family support networks, and promoting psychosocial resilience may therefore represent key strategies for enhancing social well-being among the aging population.

Psychosocial predictors of depressive and anxiety symptoms among self-initiated older Chinese migrants: evidence from Chiang Mai, Thailand

2026-09-14 · Original Research

Xinyao Huang, Chawisa Suradom, Kelvin C. Y. Leung, Tinakon Wongpakaran, Rewadee Jenraumjit

IntroductionThis cross-sectional study examined psychosocial factors associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms among self-initiated older Chinese migrants in Chiang Mai, Thailand.MethodsA total of 204 participants aged 60 years or older, who had migrated to Thailand at the age of 60 or later and had lived in Thailand for more than six months, completed structured questionnaires between December 2024 and February 2025. Measures included depressive and anxiety symptoms, acculturative stress, perceived social support, sense of mastery, and loneliness.ResultsThe prevalence of depressive symptoms was 29.9%, while 53.4% reported anxiety symptoms. Bivariate analyses indicated that greater acculturative stress and loneliness and lower perceived social support and mastery were associated with greater depressive and anxiety symptoms. In the fully adjusted regression models, greater acculturative stress, lower perceived social support, and lower mastery were associated with greater depressive symptoms, whereas greater acculturative stress and loneliness and lower perceived social support were associated with greater anxiety symptoms. Parsimonious hierarchical sensitivity analyses broadly supported these findings, although the unique association between loneliness and depressive symptoms was marginal, and the association between mastery and anxiety varied by model specification.DiscussionThese findings highlight the importance of psychosocial factors in the mental health of older migrants. Interventions should address acculturative stress and loneliness while strengthening perceived control and social connectedness. Longitudinal research should examine how these factors and institutional conditions interact over time to shape mental health trajectories in later life.

Marriage, contraception, and fertility decline in Egypt: sociological insights from Bongaarts’s proximate determinants framework

2026-09-14 · Original Research

AbdelMajeed Ahmed Hendy, Mastur Hammad Rehim, Ahmed Mohi Khalaf Sakr, Khalil Ibrahim Al-Halalat, Ruqayya Alteneiji

BackgroundEgypt’s total fertility rate (TFR) increased from 3.0 births per woman in 2008 to 3.5 in 2014, before declining to 2.85 in 2021. This study examined the proximate determinants associated with the post-2014 fertility decline.MethodsThe analysis used published aggregate indicators from the nationally representative EDHS 2014 and EFHS 2021, covering 21,762 and 20,481 ever-married women aged 15–49 years, respectively. Bongaarts’s proximate determinants framework was applied to marriage, contraception, postpartum infecundability, and induced abortion. Relative contributions were assessed using logarithmic decomposition, and sensitivity analysis evaluated total fecundity (TF) values of 15.3 and 17.ResultsThe marriage index declined from 0.56 to 0.39, contraceptive prevalence increased from 58 to 66%, and the contraceptive index declined from 0.41 to 0.34. Weighted contraceptive effectiveness decreased slightly from 0.935 to 0.921, while the postpartum infecundability index declined from 0.79 to 0.77. Marriage accounted for 63.7% of the model-implied fertility change, contraception 32.2%, and postpartum infecundability 4.1%. However, the model-estimated TFR declined from 2.82 to 1.58, indicating that the measured determinants did not fully reproduce the observed fertility trajectory.ConclusionEgypt’s post-2014 fertility decline was associated mainly with reduced marriage exposure and stronger contraceptive inhibition, while postpartum infecundability played a limited role.

Governing AI through character: moral agency and corporate authority in Anthropic’s public texts

2026-09-14 · Original Research

Simona-Nicoleta Vulpe, Cosima Rughiniș, Răzvan Rughiniș, Dinu Țurcanu

IntroductionCommercial AI laboratories increasingly govern language models through documents that prescribe values, name dispositions, stage moral conflicts, and define acceptable forms of objection. In this article, we ask how such writing makes an AI assistant into a governable character and redistributes moral authority among the model, its producer, and its publics.MethodsWe analyze 14 Anthropic texts published between December 2022 and April 2026, selected from a documented frame of 130 producer-side publications. Through close reading, we identify four operations: constitutional inscription, persona specification, trait evaluation, and narration of value conflict. Together they make heterogeneous outputs legible as the conduct of a continuing moral character. Our central finding is that character operates as a governance technology. It delegates judgment without delegating sovereignty. Claude is addressed as capable of interpreting reasons, avowing commitments, and objecting to wrongdoing, while Anthropic retains the power to define the constitutional order, construct the evidence, amend the standards, and decide deployment or termination.DiscussionCharacter compresses moral plurality into portable traits, rankings, and measures, stabilizes an organizational subject across changing models and technical settings, and turns instability into a productive resource. We call this recursive character-writing because model outputs re-enter the documentary and technical processes through which later versions are specified. The analysis connects science and technology studies with the sociology of morality by showing how corporate texts simultaneously produce a moral object, authorize a bounded moral subject, and secure private constitutive authority.

Correction: Masculine guardianship in family systems: decoding cinematic discourses of protection, abuse and institutional failure in Chithha movie

2026-09-11 · Correction

R. Krishika, S. Saravanan

Understanding workforce sustainability through institutional theory: insights from Uzbekistan’s hotel industry

2026-09-10 · Original Research

H. Elif Kutlugun, Dilzodakhon Rakhimova, Berislav Andrlić

This study explores hotel employees’ experiences in Uzbekistan using a phenomenological approach to understand how workplace conditions affect progress toward sustainable tourism guided by the primary research question: “What are the problems encountered in the hotel industry from employees” perspective in Uzbekistan? Through semi-structured interviews with 15 frontline employees, analyzed via an inductive-deductive thematic approach, the research captures employee views on motivation, turnover, skills, and daily challenges. Interpreted through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Institutional Theory, the findings show that sustainability gaps arise from cross-pillar institutional misalignment rather than isolated managerial shortcomings. Weak enforcement of labor rules, industry norms that prioritize cost-minimization, and cultural expectations particularly around gender combine to produce wage inequity, limited career development, outdated training, infrastructure constraints, and neglected health and safety practices. Women additionally face restricted advancement due to unpaid care responsibilities and stigma attached to certain hospitality roles. These institutional pressures result in symbolic compliance with sustainability commitments instead of meaningful change. Ultimately, by highlighting the need for stronger labor enforcement, updated skills systems, improved infrastructure, gender-inclusive policies, and consistent safety practices, this study contributes theoretically by illustrating how macro-level institutional voids materialize in daily operations, and practically by offering practical strategies for policymakers and hoteliers to align institutional pillars and support a more equitable hotel sector in transition economies.

Restorative justice and the role of community in All Your Faces: a film analysis

2026-09-10 · Original Research

Alessandra Minissale, Raffaella Sette

This article examines the representation of community within restorative justice (RJ) in the French film All Your Faces (Je verrai toujours vos visages, 2023), addressing central debates within RJ scholarship concerning the meaning, place, and function of community in restorative processes. By analysing the film’s verbal and visual dimensions, the article examines how community is represented and enacted through relationships, interactions, spatial arrangements, and restorative practices. The analysis identifies three forms of community: prison as a space in which multiple communities intersect; the participatory community that emerges within the restorative circle; and communities of care that support victims and offenders throughout the restorative process. Across these dimensions, All Your Faces portrays community as an evolving social process rather than a fixed category of participants. Community is progressively produced through ritualized interaction, storytelling, humor, collective vulnerability, recognition, and practices of care. These findings shift attention from who constitutes the community in RJ to how community is enacted through restorative practices and relationships. The article contributes to interdisciplinary scholarships at the intersection of sociology, law, criminology, and victimology by conceptualizing community as a relational and institutional accomplishment. It also demonstrates the value of film as a site for examining how restorative justice practices and values are culturally imagined, interpreted, and communicated to wider publics.

The ideology of religious stigmatization: imposed identities as a tool for constructing the national community in Kazakhstan

2026-09-09 · Original Research

Tussubzhan Duzbayev, Essenzhol Aliyarov, Natalya Seitakhmetova, Sholpan Zhandossova, Marhabbat Nurov

IntroductionThis study examines how imposed religious identities operate as an ideological instrument in Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet transformation, with particular attention to the social production of stigma and the ways in which boundaries of the national community are articulated in public discourse.MethodsBuilding on Erving Goffman’s concept of stigma and critical approaches to ideology and governance (Althusser, Gramsci, and Foucault), the article adopts an interdisciplinary case-study design combining descriptive analysis of secondary quantitative data with qualitative analysis of key legal and policy documents and a purposively selected set of six publicly accessible media and official materials published between 2016 and 2023.ResultsThe analysis identifies changes in patterns of religious self-identification alongside differentiated discursive positioning of religious groups. Within the reviewed materials, “traditional” confessions, particularly Hanafi Islam and Orthodox Christianity, are associated with cultural heritage and social stability, whereas some movements categorized as “non-traditional” are linked to security-related and “foreign influence” narratives. These qualitative patterns are especially relevant to new religious movements, denominations perceived as non-traditional in the region, and youth whose religious learning is mediated by digital and transnational networks.DiscussionThe study concludes that formal commitments to freedom of religion and pluralism coexist with practices of differentiated regulation and representation that can contribute to the stabilization of confessional hierarchies within broader processes of nation-building.

Bridging the gender gap in occupational wellbeing: a pilot intervention based on psychoeducation in judicial office for organized crime

2026-09-09 · Brief Research Report

Valeria Saladino, Danilo Calaresi, Loriana Castellani, Stefano Eleuteri, Maria Giovanna Massari, Filippo Petruccelli, Irene Petruccelli, Valeria Verrastro, Fiorenza Giordano

Occupational wellbeing is critical for organizational effectiveness in high-pressure public sectors, yet gender-neutral interventions often overlook nuanced identity dynamics. This exploratory pilot study evaluated a five-month, preventive, group-based psychoeducational intervention designed to moderate psychological risk and enhance emotional intelligence among 27 professionals in an Italian public security agency. Pre- and post-intervention evaluations assessed changes in emotional intelligence (WLEIS), psychological injury risk (PIRI), and job-related affective wellbeing (JAWS), alongside qualitative thematic analysis of focus group transcripts. Post-intervention trends suggested subtle, sex-disaggregated and age-moderated shifts: while female participants demonstrated moderate improvements in emotional intelligence and reductions in perceived psychological risk, male participants reported a minor reduction in self-assessed emotional skills and an increase in reported psychological strain. Age-disaggregated analyses revealed distinct cohort responses: while the 50 + group showed substantial gains in emotional intelligence and affective wellbeing, the 31–50 cohort exhibited a more critical self-appraisal of emotional skills. Despite limitations inherent to a small pilot sample, self-report reliance, and a single-arm non-experimental design, this work offers valuable preliminary insights into designing gender-sensitive, intersectional, and reproducible health promotion strategies within high-stakes public institutions.

Domesticating esoteric Buddhism: lay women, Foxin Jing practice, and somatic authority in contemporary China

2026-09-09 · Original Research

Tianyan Yin, Yaoping Liu, Daohua Xu

This study examines how lay women engage with, adapt, and transmit the heart-mind esoteric Buddhist tradition known as Foxin Jing (佛心经) in contemporary China. Previous scholarship on Chinese esoteric Buddhism has predominantly focused on issues related to legitimacy, lineage, institutional power, and master-disciple relations. However, there has been a relative lack of focus on the role played by women in maintaining esoteric Buddhist practice via the domestic, affective, and embodied dimensions of religion. Drawing on qualitative research with twenty lay women practitioners, this study shows that Foxin Jing is experienced not merely as an esoteric ritual or protective dhāraṇī, but as an embodied heart-mind discipline integrated into domestic routines, interpersonal relationships, and personal cultivation. The findings demonstrate that women sustain the practice through domestic and informal lay settings, relational networks, and bodily-affective experiences involving voice, breath, silence, emotional composure, and changes in bodily tension. The article further develops the concept of somatic authority to explain how embodied transformation becomes socially recognizable as evidence of religious efficacy and a basis for interpersonal trust. These findings show that the continuity of Foxin Jing depends not only on formal institutions and lineage authority, but also on women’s everyday discipline, relational transmission, and embodied religious credibility.

Two decades of majoritarian hegemony and minority subordination within Indonesian religious governance amidst polarization

2026-09-09 · Original Research

Pundra Rengga Andhita, Evi Novianti, Suwandi Sumartias, Agus Rahmat

This study examines the socio legal governance and structural exclusion embedded within the implementation of the 2006 Joint Ministerial Decree (PBM 2006) in Indonesia over the past two decades. Using a qualitative critical paradigm with an extensive multilocus fieldwork approach across multiple urban and rural regions, this research investigates how localized administrative discretion shapes civic space. The empirical data are sorted through a disciplined sequential progression starting with a descriptive textual classification before transitioning to independent social theories. The results indicate that the vague lexical design of PBM 2006, particularly regarding neighborhood supporter metrics and executive discretion, converts administrative procedures into tools of selective exclusion. The discussion demonstrates how street level bureaucrats under localized populist pressure systematically employ their discretionary power to enforce administrative delay and spatial containment, a process conceptualized as bureaucratic violence. This institutional erasure is further exacerbated by underlying material conflicts, including economic inequality and property disputes, proving that localized frictions are driven by structural pathologies rather than pure theological clashes. Crucially, the rigid demographical metrics also trigger a juridical resonance that sparks internal division within the dominant majority itself. This study concludes that a shift from approval based permission models toward technical city planning notification systems is imperative to secure a transformative cultural citizenship and guarantee sustainable democratic governance.

Analysis of the minutes of rondas campesinas using text mining techniques

2026-09-09 · Original Research

Lenin Quiñones Huatangari, Raúl Díaz Cabrera, Nicanor Alvarado Carrasco, Frank Fernández Rosillo, Jorge Luis Maicelo Guevara, Omer Cruz Caro, Segundo Salazar Serván

The rondas campesinas are rural community justice organizations that emerged among impoverished indigenous communities in the Andes and are the driving force behind the largest and most influential grassroots movement in north-eastern Peru. The aim of the research was to unveil the characteristics, thematic approaches and working dynamics of the rondas campesinas using text mining as a technique for information analysis. Seventy-four minutes from Huaquillas, Namballe and San Jose de Lourdes in the province of San Ignacio, department of Cajamarca were analyzed, covering the period from 2012 to 2024. The analysis included five steps: data collection and pre-processing by eliminating stopwords and tokenization, keyword identification using the word cloud technique, word quantification using the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency method, latent topic analysis through Latent Dirichlet assignment and vector representation through modeling with Word2Vec. These steps allowed the identification of community problems, social control actions and emerging trends in community organization. The text mining technique is a tool to analyze minutes not only of rondas campesinas but also of organizations or institutions that want to know with certainty the thematic approaches they develop.

Affinal parenthood after divorce: a socio-legal study of stepparent visitation rights in Peruvian blended families

2026-09-09 · Original Research

José Luis Castilla-Cabezudo, Reimy Zegarra-Castañeda, Giany Zegarra-Castañeda, Claudia Catherine Díaz-Arias, César Jesús Martín Salcedo-Tenemas

IntroductionBlended families challenge legal systems that continue to organize parental status primarily through formal categories such as filiation, adoption, parental authority, custody, and legally recognized family status. This study examines how Peruvian judicial, legal, prosecutorial, public-defense, and psychosocial professionals interpret the possibility of granting post-divorce visitation rights to stepparents in blended families. It does not propose automatic legal parenthood for stepparents but analyzes whether affinal status, when accompanied by evidence of social or functional parenthood, may provide a basis for judicial assessment under the best interests of the child.MethodsAn exploratory qualitative socio-legal design was employed, combining analysis of Peruvian constitutional, civil, and child-protection law with eleven structured expert interviews. Participants included two family judges, four lawyers, two public defenders, one family prosecutor, and two psychologists in Ica, Peru. Data were analyzed through directed thematic analysis using deductive and inductive coding, coder comparison, and analytic triangulation across interviews, legal materials, jurisprudence, doctrine, and socio-legal literature.ResultsSix interrelated themes were identified: formal affinity as a procedural gateway rather than a complete legal basis; the best interests of the child as a structured judicial inquiry; socio-affective bonds as an evidentiary threshold; non-displacement of biological or legal parents; the relevance of interdisciplinary and psychosocial evidence; and uncertainty arising from judicial discretion. Participants generally considered affinity insufficient by itself and emphasized evidence of caregiving, emotional continuity, and the child’s welfare.DiscussionThe findings indicate that Peruvian law provides interpretive mechanisms for assessing post-divorce stepparent visitation despite the absence of a specific statutory regime. Affinal status may make a claim legally cognizable, but continued contact should depend on evidence that the relationship acquired social or functional parental significance and that visitation serves the child’s best interests without displacing the rights and duties of legal parents. The study contributes a Latin American perspective to broader socio-legal debates on social parenthood, functional parenthood, socio-affective kinship, family diversity, and judicial discretion.