The present exposition presents a conceptual analysis of how one might construct a social architecture. The focus is on creating a synthesis of constructs used by architects Arakawa and Gins (A/G) such as landing sites, tentativeness, and cleaving with social psychological constructs such as coordination, cooperation and trust. The purpose of this synthesis is to develop an organism that not only persons in A/G’s terms but interpersons in my terms. I propose this extension as a possible way to help change people in a manner that will reduce, if not eliminate, destructive social conflicts such as those occurring in the Middle East between Palestinians and Israelis. Based on this analysis, new uses of A/G’s architectural strategies are proposed.

The painter Vincent van Gogh and the writer Robert E. Howard worked in different genres, but both produced rather bizarre works which have distinct similarities. In both, their work reveals the artist’s belief that humanity exists among an overwhelming cosmic chaos which bids to engulf humanity. This cosmic animosity exists primarily in planes of existence other than the earth, but the forces of chaos and evil are hostile to humanity and are intent on engulfing the earth and destroying a humanity which is effectively helpless in the face of the onslaught. Both van Gogh and Howard died by suicide reflecting their unwillingness to live among the chaos.

Washback refers to the influence of testing on language teaching and learning. It is a complex educational phenomenon prevailing in various academic contexts. Based on the theoretical frameworks of washback, extensive empirical research has been conducted on large-scale, high-stake, or standardized national and international examinations. This paper discusses conceptual models of washback and reviews representative empirical studies of washback of English language testing on ELL teaching and learning during the last three decades. The findings indicate coexistence of both positive and negative washback in teaching contents, teaching materials, teaching methods, student learning, teachers’ feelings and attitudes, as well as students’ feelings and attitudes. Future studies could investigate the test mechanisms at both micro and macro levels to mediate intended washback on ELL language teaching and learning while minimizing its negative effects.

It is an undeniable fact that China has basically succeeded in controlling the spread of the epidemic in China in the first half of 2020. Behind this success there may be several reasons, among which the cultural factors have certainly played an important role. What kind of cultural values helped Chinese to combat the COVID-19 Epidemic? This paper attempts to discuss this issue by analysing some data from the newly released results in Wave 7 of the World Values Survey and combining with the study of Chinese cultural concepts. It finds that, generally speaking, Chinese culture is characterized with the following cultural spirits and values which are relevant to Chinese people’s responding to the crisis of COVID-19 outbreak: the value of the supremacy of human life, believe in science rather than religion, the preference of the value of security over the value of freedom, the idea that the fate of an individual is inextricably linked to that of a group, nation, and humanity, and the spirit of trust and obedience to political leadership. At a time when humanity need to unite in the face of a major disaster such as the Covid-19 pandemic, these Chinese cultural values clearly have some advantages that deserve to be summarized and studied.

Among other important and rare books, The National Central Library of Florence in Italy preserves a manuscript dated to the first half of the 14th century and compiled in Bohemia. It contains three Middle High German courtly romances: Gottfried von StraBburgs Tristan, its continuation by Heinrich von Freiberg, and Hartmann von Aues Iwein. This paper focuses on the history of the codex and some interesting stylistic features of Iweins copy, which denotes a strong tendency to simplify the text. It is suggested that the Florentine Iwein is not a rewriting, rather, it could be seen as a reshaping of the inherent sense of the chivalric poem, given its probable audience would likely not understand the old code of the Arthurian world.

In Mongolia, the issues of workplace harassment, discrimination, human rights violations, mistreatment, and attitudes such as superiority and bullying have been widely discussed for example in the released news of advocacy service provider, the report of National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia, and the discussion of Parliamentary Subcommittee on Human Rights in recent years, but public awareness is still limited. Although legal documents, codes of conduct, and decisions are enacted to address unlawful and unethical issues like workplace discrimination and harassment implementation is poor, especially for government agencies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to better understand the causes of, and methods for eliminating, workplace harassment and discrimination through research that identifies the causes and offers recommendations to resolve the present state-of-affairs. A qualitative study using a survey involving civil servants of public administration, public service organizations, and public special agents were conducted from June to September 2020. The study sought to determine whether human rights violation occurs in public organizations, whether employees are discriminated against and harassed, and if there are any reasons or causes for these problems. Recommendations based on this research; then, some solutions are suggested for improvement.

The present work seeks to substantiate and expound on the emerging research agenda that explores pervasive problems with politization of state-sponsored, anti-corruption activism in the post-communist countries. The study examines the evolution of anti-corruption discourse in the post-Soviet Russia from 1994 through 2020. Specific data from the annual presidential addresses to the Federal Assembly are used to conduct a quantitative analysis of frequencies of using corruption and anti-corruption terms by the three Russian presidents- Yeltsin, Medvedev, and Putin. A contextual examination of anti-corruption rhetoric is also performed to explain the results of the quantitative analysis.

This paper analyses a twice-marginalised section of the global population: displaced persons living with HIV. A summary of non-governmental organisations’ (NGO) declarations on human rights is given to provide a framework through which support in camps can be analysed. Case studies are drawn from camps in Tanzania and Kenya and show that the logistics of providing HIV services that meet human rights declarations on healthcare are difficult to implement in practice. Services should instead aim to be grass-roots based to account for the cultural, political and economic dynamics that play out in various refugee camps. The paper concludes that whilst human rights declarations are essential in outlining a respected standard for global health and dignity, experience-based learning must pave the way for better communication between humanitarian workers and NGOs so that the human rights of displaced PLWHA can be safeguarded.