Nexus between carbon emission,financial development,and access to electricity: Incorporating the role of natural resources and population growth

This study explores the nexus between financial development, access to electricity, and CO₂ emissions in Pakistan over the period from 1990 to 2015, incorporating the role of natural resources and population growth. We checked the stationarity of the data by using three different unit root tests (ADF, Phillip Pesaran, and DG‐FLS). Long‐ and short‐run elasticities have been determined through auto‐regressive distributive lag (ARDL) method. The empirical results confirmed that financial development and access to electricity increase CO₂ emissions and deteriorate the environmental quality. In addition, the population growth is responsible for growing CO₂ emissions in Pakistan, while natural resources have insignificant relation with CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, bidirectional causality exists between population growth and natural resources, whereas unidirectional causality is detected among financial development and CO₂ emissions, natural resources and population growth, and financial development and population growth. The newly developed findings suggest helpful policy implications to adequately address the issue of CO₂ emissions without compromising economic development.     

Tea culture and industry: Customer tea buying decision‐making power shaped by social capital in the presence of mutual trust

This study contributes to the literature on tea culture and industry by examining the impact of social capital on customer perception which controls the decision to buy the tea products. Prior research suggests that individual cognition is the most essential element to target to achieve the required tea purchasing decision power. Individuals who socially connect and share views via social media are more likely to share a buy recommendation that psychologically inspires the buying decisions of customers. For present study data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 300 universities students usually use social media to get required information, knowledge and ask from other friends regarding product recommendation which is more trustworthy and easily accessible. The findings of the present study provide new insights into the development of the tea industry and encourage the use of tea products.     

Regime Consolidation and Female Status in a Fledgling Theocracy: Khomeini's Vilayet-e-Fiqh, 1979–89

The Iranian Revolution, through Khomeini's consolidation measures, quickly morphed into an ‘Islamic Revolution’. Khomeini's regime abrogated popular legislation such as the Family Protection Laws of 1967 and 1975, which protected the rights of females, as the clerics sought to institute Shariah (Islamic) laws in an ‘Islamic Republic’. The historical record reveals that the precipitous legal transformation from secular to Shariah law under Ayatollah Khomeini's personal tutelage placed females in a dangerous predicament. Regressive gender policies, however, served to mobilize females to push back against the new social paradigm which had emerged under the rubric of Velayat-e-Fiqh. This article examines this misogynistic trajectory during Khomeini's rule and how it served to galvanize many Iranian women to ‘gender activism’.     

Participation via collective action in government and NGO schools in Pakistan

Parent-teacher associations (PTAs) or school management committees (SMCs) are an important way of realising participation via collective action to improve schooling. Field visits, a literature review, and a small sample survey are the three sources used to explore the status of SMCs/PTAs that have been established by provincial governments and NGOs in Pakistan. My main finding is that to make participation effective in schooling, public-sector reforms need to be carried out to alter the power relations between parents, teachers, and government officials. In general, NGO schools performed only marginally better than government schools in engendering participation.     

Towards a Transformative Conceptualisation of Violence Against Women ‐ A Critical Frame Analysis of Council of Europe Discourse on Violence Against Women

Much academic attention has been devoted to violence against women (VAW) in Europe and research has focused on the mounting policy reform initiatives and capacity building strategies in the EU. Council of Europe initiatives in this area have, surprisingly, by contrast, remained under‐researched. This paper seeks to fill the gap in the literature by engaging in an examination and critique of the ways in which the Council of Europe has incorporated and framed VAW within various legal and policy initiatives. It will employ a methodology of critical frame analysis as theorised by the literature on social movements, and anti‐essentialist critiques within feminist literature to ask: how VAW is problematised; what solutions are offered; where they are located; to what extent they are gendered; and who has a voice in these policy and legal texts.