Explore the vast range of titles available.

Integrating sustainability principles into higher education curricula is a global imperative, yet it poses significant challenges for faculty development, particularly across diverse disciplinary and cultural contexts. This paper explores how the process of embedding sustainability into university courses acts as a catalyst for educator transformation, influencing faculty identity, pedagogical method, and professional agency. Drawing on a qualitative multiple case study conducted at two international universities in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, this study analyzes teaching artefacts, course materials, and reflective journals from courses spanning information systems, business analytics, digital marketing, and media and communication. The CoDesignS Framework served as both a design and analytical scaffold to align teaching practices with key sustainability competencies and transformative pedagogies. Findings demonstrate that sustainability integration encourages not only deeper student engagement but also meaningful professional growth for educators, shifting their roles from content experts to co-designers of learning. This paper contributes a practitioner-led, contextually grounded model for embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and argues that empowering faculty through flexible, reflective frameworks such as CoDesignS may be more effective than top-down compliance approaches in driving institutional change.

This study explores the transformative landscape of Arab media branding strategies, focusing on the interplay between technology, diverse ownership models, and strategic innovation. Using Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism framework, this research examines the branding strategies of 11 prominent Arab media organizations. Findings show that successful Arab media brands combine cultural relevance, visual identity, and advanced digital technologies to build audience trust and loyalty. By leveraging wealth and innovation, Gulf nations promote the creation of technologically advanced media hubs, while other regions prioritize strong connections with local cultural identities. The study identifies four distinct Arab media branding models: the Portals Model, which emphasizes centralized platforms with authoritative voices; the Streamer Model, focusing on high-quality visuals and interactive experiences; the Catalog Model, offering structured content libraries and personalized curation; and the Social Media Model, leveraging real-time communication and emotional engagement to build loyal communities. This study highlights the crucial role of technology in shaping contemporary Arab media branding. It stresses the importance of balancing innovation with cultural and regulatory constraints to maintain long-term competitiveness and relevance in a rapidly changing media environment.

Digital platforms have empowered individuals and communities to re-negotiate long-established notions of religion and authority. A new generation of social media influencers has recently emerged in the Muslim world. They are western-educated, unique storytellers, and savvy in digital media production. This raises new questions on the future of Islam in the context of emerging challenges, such as the openness of technology and the often-perceived closedness of religious and cultural systems within Muslim societies. This paper uses a multiple case research design to examine the roles of social media influencers in reimagining Islam and reshaping spiritual beliefs and religious practices among young people in the Gulf Region, the Arab world, and beyond. We used thematic analysis of the Instagram and YouTube content of four social media influencers in the Gulf Region: Salama Mohamed and Khalid Al Ameri from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmad Al-Shugairi from Saudi Arabia, and Omar Farooq from Bahrain. The study found that social media influencers are challenging traditional religious authorities as they reimagine Muslim identities based on a new global lifestyle.

PurposeWith the conceptualization of the blockchain as a socio-technical assemblage, this study aims to critically examine the blockchain initiatives in Korea in terms of the opportunities, risks and challenges embedded in their development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes blockchain design and development from socioecological views: social, technological and cultural phenomena that represent the strategic interaction among people, technology and society. The qualitative data were collected from a variety of sources and diverse means.FindingsThe results imply that blockchain needs a close socio-technical examination to avoid simplistic assumptions of its promises and pitfalls. The development of blockchains in Korea will need to consider a range of socio-technical issues to facilitate the best outcomes for blockchain in society.Research limitations/implicationsDespite proactive drives, new risks, such as security, privacy and transparency, emerge as critical concerns of the social implications of the blockchain and their impact on the new digital environment. Questions are raised as to how to govern blockchains, and how to address the unexpected outcomes that such a policy choice may have on society and industry.Originality/valueThe sociopolitical implications of Korean blockchains are examined to identify key concerns and issues as the country progresses rapidly toward a blockchain-driven society.

PurposeThis paper analyzes Fang Fang's 2020 Wuhan Diary‐Dispatches from a Quarantined City, to show how the author communicates the coronavirus crisis in Wuhan in a global information ecosystem. The success of the diary showcases how the actual health emergency has been transformed into a communication issue.Design/methodology/approachThis study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. The authors conducted a thematic analysis (TA) of Wuhan Diary, in which we decided to focus on the aspects of sousveillance and solidarity. For the purposes of our paper, we used the English translation of the text by Dr. Michael Berry.FindingsThe authors focus on two major themes in their exploration of the corona crisis as a global communication issue: sousveillance and solidarity. The authors argue that the diary's ways of seeing perform a version of “sousveillance” or “undersight” in juxtaposition to surveillance or “oversight” (Mann, 2017). Fang Fang calls for solidarity as an effective measure for individuals, communities and societies to contain the pandemic and a potential misinfodemic.Originality/valueSince Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wuhan Diary presents an unprecedented narrative account of life under quarantine that could function as a litmus test for other cities and countries. Fang Fang's diary provides a countermeasure to official accounts of the pandemic in Wuhan, which has resonated both with people in China and abroad.

A number of artificial intelligence (AI) systems have been proposed to assist users in identifying the issues of algorithmic fairness and transparency. These AI systems use diverse bias detection methods from various perspectives, including exploratory cues, interpretable tools, and revealing algorithms. This study explains the design of AI systems by probing how users make sense of fairness and transparency as they are hypothetical in nature, with no specific ways for evaluation. Focusing on individual perceptions of fairness and transparency, this study examines the roles of normative values in over-the-top (OTT) platforms by empirically testing their effects on sensemaking processes. A mixed-method design incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to discover user heuristics and to test the effects of such normative values on user acceptance. Collectively, a composite concept of transparent fairness emerged around user sensemaking processes and its formative roles regarding their underlying relations to perceived quality and credibility. From a sensemaking perspective, this study discusses the implications of transparent fairness in algorithmic media platforms by clarifying how and what should be done to make algorithmic media more trustable and reliable platforms. Based on the findings, a theoretical model is developed to define transparent fairness as an essential algorithmic attribute in the context of OTT platforms.

In the context of the global climate change debate, the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education institutions (HEIs) has been identified as one of the top priorities. This paper presents the CoDesignS ESD Framework (hereafter “Framework”) focused on HEIs, though the Framework is applicable to other types of educational institutions. The Framework introduces transformative pedagogies and teaching methods that extend beyond typical ESD competencies, encompassing cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral domains for a holistic design and delivery. It was evaluated using a focus group and interviews among sustainability practitioners and academics, learning and curriculum designers, students, and government officials involved in ESD. The evaluation demonstrates key stakeholders’ engagement with the Framework and appreciation of its potential to integrate sustainability into university curricula across different disciplines. The findings suggest that the Framework is easy to use, making sustainability explicit in the curriculum and actively developing the competencies students require to bring about change beyond the classroom. The feedback received has helped the further development of the Framework, including the CoDesignS ESD Toolkit Planner and Dashboard, which provide a more effective way of integrating the learning design and ESD components embedded as part of the CoDesignS ESD pillars.

The goal of this study was to examine the effects of interaction techniques (e.g., swiping and tapping) and the range of thumb movements on interactivity, engagement, attitude, and behavioral intention in single-handed interaction by focusing on interactions with mobile devices such as smartphones. This study adopted the perspective of the hybrid definition of interactivity, which includes the interactivity effect outcomes mediated by perceived interactivity. A 2 (technological features: swiping and tapping) × 2 (range of thumb movement: wide and narrow) between-participant experiment was conducted. The results showed the ranges of thumb movement to have significant effects on perceived interactivity, engagement, attitude, and behavioral intention, whereas no effects were observed for interaction techniques. A narrow range of thumb movement had more influence on the interactivity outcomes, rather than a wide range of thumb movement. The implications of the finding were discussed.