Abstract In absence of vaccine or a well-known treatment at onset of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), public health measures such as social distancing, washing hands, and wearing face masks were implemented as the most effective strategies to combat the spread of the virus. This article explores the perceptions and interpretations of COVID-19-related regulations and implications of the disease to human life in different contexts. The article adopted a qualitative research methodology, where twenty participants were selected purposively and interviewed, then data analyzed inductively. The analysis of interviews revealed varied conceptualizations and interpretations about the disease and social distancing. Notably, COVID-19 regulations such social distancing and face masking were perceived as imported policy, a misconception that would be attributed to non-adherence to COVID-19 protocols. Further, the study underscore that the disease and policies related to it disrupted ways of social life; infringed on people’s social-cultural rights; and had adverse health consequences. The study recommends a strategic and deliberate reconstruction of the society to restore its sociological functions post COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract In recent years, there has been a rethinking of the concept of white privilege and a development of new concepts like white fragility. At the same time, discourse around ‘white supremacy’ has mostly remained stagnant. Some claim it is anachronistic and no longer applicable. Others fear it will discourage whites from supporting the quest for racial justice. In this article, I advocate for using the term ‘white supremacy’ to name the problem that racial justice theorists and activists seek to dismantle. More specifically, I utilize the work of Charles Mills to defend the use of ‘white supremacy’ against Marxist critics.

Abstract The article analyzes the historical Silk Road in its long-term development. It entails reflections on the knowledge of Eastern global interactions providing a long-term contextual framework for Eurasia as a single continent. Eurasian globalization influenced the interactions of regions from China and India, through Western Asia, the Middle East, Eastern and Northern Africa and the Mediterranean, and the south of Europe. An important role was played by the Silk Road, as the main historical long-term network of global interactions and communication, which is now being echoed in the new current global initiatives, particularly the Belt and Road Initiative, which updates the historical Silk Road.

Abstract Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19 has undeniably changed the world forever. Capitalism in the United States and Europe can no longer feel immune from the effects of epidemics that were at one point in time the concern of minor countries, such as the recent (2014–2016) Ebola epidemic in Western Africa. This article examines how COVID-19 not only showed that Capitalism has no clothes in its inability to respond effectively to this momentous event, but shows the burgeoning of the impact on its slow-motion decline. This is evident from the still-unresolved healthcare crisis in the United States, which allows runaway contagion, sickness, and death due to a careless governmental attitude that prioritizes capital over human lives; the economic impact, which sidelines millions of workers into unemployment, leaving them without a way to sustain themselves due to a miserly and short-sighted governmental response; and the political and social cost that is yet to be determined.

Abstract This study explores levels of concern about the environment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Data for the study were obtained from the 2019 ‘Levels of Concern about the Environment in the UAE’ survey. A convenience sample of 1520 respondents were selected, contacted and interviewed by research assistants. Per the study’s findings, respondents did endorse three out of five dimensions of the Revised NEW Ecological Paradigm scale including the anthropocentric view of nature, balance of nature, and the possibility of eco-crisis. Nevertheless, respondents failed to support the other two dimensions of the given paradigm: limit to growth and human Exemptionalism.

Abstract Literature studies have shown that older persons face an array of challenges, among them parenting a delinquent grandchild. This study adopted both a qualitative approach and paradigm, supported by an explorative and a descriptive case study design. The study sampled eleven participants, and data were collected using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with grandparents, a community committee member, and probation officers. Measures employed by grandparent households in tandem with the Department of Social Development were unearthed. These included, but were not limited to, corporal punishment, seeking assistance from relatives, seeking assistance from social workers, and creating attachment. This article recommends that the government prioritize the grandparents’ vulnerability to the dangers of parenting difficult children, either by freeing them from such a harmful environment, or putting measures in place to manage children in conflict with the law, with special attention to grandparent-headed households.

Abstract Through neocolonial trade relations, globalization has caused a world-wide division of labor, resources, and consumption—between former colonizers and the colonized. Technology—the latest in the choir of idols worshipped by the modern West—exacerbates this schism even as it reduces it. This article explores the implications of the products of technology for work, class, and caste in this last phase of neocolonialism. Technological devices that de-class us, by replacing human and animal workers, can also re-class us by dividing owners from the operators of machines.

Abstract This article explores some of the literature on the political economy of higher education. It suggests growing contradictions between the need for available funds and competition for students, research dollars, and new educational “products,” such as online education. It refers to that literature that raises contradictions between the global “market” for students and tuition fees. And it also raises issues of the quality of education, particularly as non-job-oriented programs are dismantled. Purdue University, a land-grant public university, is suggested as one example of these contradictions.