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This article examines the transformative potential of community radio (CR) in facilitating social change. Using a case study of Khwezi Community Radio (KR) in South Africa (SA), the study draws on vignette-based analysis informed by content analysis of KR programming, supported by excerpts from interviews and focus groups with community members and radio staff from the broader doctoral study. It advances a nuanced analysis of power that goes beyond its hierarchical and oppressive dimensions, exploring it as relational, negotiated, and potentially transformative. The study interrogates how communities engage with power through KR, particularly in relation to leadership structures, as exemplified in the KR mayoral show, where decision-making power remains contested. Findings highlight how communities cultivate collective agency through the Masibumbane Listeners Club (MLC), reinforcing a shared sense of community and participatory engagement. However, the study problematises static conceptualisations of participatory spaces by demonstrating how power asymmetries persist and are continuously negotiated within CR-facilitated interactions embedded in broader socio-political and economic structures. The study argues that understanding the extent to which CRs contribute to social change requires a critical power lens, revealing the constraints of transformative power when community leaders act as gatekeepers, thereby impeding ser-vice delivery and obstructing participatory governance. Furthermore, the study challenges the assumption that power asymmetries exist solely in external structures, highlighting subtler forms of power embedded within collaborative spaces such as the MLC.

The article examines the Eastern Partnership (EaP) as the initiative of the European Union (EU) through the prism of the constructivist concepts of soft power, normative power and transformative power. The research focuses on the assessment of the EU’s transformative strength in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, based on the analysis of declared EU policy goals and instruments and the real results of political reforms in partner countries. The results of the study show that the EaP has little transformative impact and needs further revision. The analysis of empirical indicators in the field of political transformation of the EaP countries shows that since its inception, as well as after the signing of Association Agreements with three countries and the renewal of the European Neighborhood Policy in 2015, no radical changes have been made, and the EU’s influence on the course of reforms has been insignificant. Institutional and geopolitical constraints and challenges that complicate the EU’s ability to influence its eastern neighbours are addressed. The article analyses prospects for strengthening the effectiveness of the EaP in the context of its latest update after 2020.

This study examines the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities on the success of entrepreneurial ventures by enhancing firms’ decision making, automation, customer experience, innovation, risk mitigation and competitive advantage. A quantitative approach was used to gather data from a sample of 327 entrepreneurs through a questionnaire. The collected information was analyzed using structural equation modeling with the SmartPLS software. Additionally, snowball sampling was employed to ensure a diverse sample of entrepreneurs with existing projects. The analysis reveals significant effects of AI capabilities in decision making, innovation, risk mitigation and competitive advantage, all contributing to the success of entrepreneurial ventures. However, automation and customer experience did not show statistically significant effects. The results indicate that entrepreneurs can leverage AI to strategically adopt this technology. Policymakers and investors can use the insights from this work to foster a supportive ecosystem for AI-driven entrepreneurial ventures. Furthermore, the new conceptual framework introduced in this study enhances understanding of how AI can revolutionize entrepreneurship. It also provides valuable insights for entrepreneurs and industry stakeholders operating in AI-driven environments. This study underscores the importance of decision making strategies and the integration of risk reduction practices, ultimately enriching the body of knowledge on AI implementation across various business settings.

This article highlights the weakening of the EU’s transformative capacity in the broader European periphery in a rapidly shifting global order, with reference to Hungary and Turkey. Although Hungary is an ‘insider’ and Turkey a relative ‘outsider’, their recent experiences display strikingly similar patterns, raising important concerns about the EU’s leverage. Under the influence of strong nationalist-populist leaders backed by powerful majorities, both countries have been moving in an increasingly illiberal direction, away from well-established EU norms. The article proposes an analytical framework based on a combination of push and pull factors that are driven by changing global political economy dynamics, which explains the EU’s declining appeal in its periphery, not only in reference to the internal dynamics of European integration and its multiple crises, but also the appeal of illiberal versions of strategic capitalism employed by rising powers, which serve as reference points for the elites of several states in diverse geographic settings.

Cancer is a deadly disease that affects millions of people worldwide and is a source of great difficulty, stress, and trauma not only for patients but also for their caregivers. The physical and emotional suffering that patients experience by patients can lead their caregivers to cope with constant anxiety, sadness, and uncertainty. Moreover, during the cancer treatment process, caregivers must make a great effort to meet the needs of patients and support them. This situation may negatively affect the quality of life and psychological health of cancer patients’ caregivers and may lead them to experience trauma. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to examine posttraumatic growth’s relationship with age, the transformative power of suffering, and hope in family caregivers of cancer patients. Participants consisted of 314 Turkish family caregivers of cancer patients (73.2% women; M age  = 39.89 years) selected by using convenience sampling method. Participants answered a data collection tool consisting of a demographic information form, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, Trait Hope Scale, and Transformative Power of Suffering Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient analysis, simple mediation analysis, and moderated mediation analysis. The results of this study revealed that hope mediated the association between the transformative power of suffering and posttraumatic growth in family caregivers of cancer patients, whereas age moderated this relationship. Psychosocial support programs for cancer caregivers could benefit from incorporating interventions that explore the transformative potential of suffering and cultivate hope. Tailoring these interventions to address the specific needs of different age groups may enhance their effectiveness. Future researchers should investigate the factors associated with posttraumatic growth in caregivers across diverse cultures, age ranges, and cancer diagnoses.

Moral Laboratoriesis an engaging ethnography and a groundbreaking foray into the anthropology of morality. It takes us on a journey into the lives of African American families caring for children with serious chronic medical conditions, and it foregrounds the uncertainty that affects their struggles for a good life. Challenging depictions of moral transformation as possible only in moments of breakdown or in radical breaches from the ordinary, it offers a compelling portrait of the transformative powers embedded in day-to-day existence. From soccer fields to dinner tables, the everyday emerges as a moral laboratory for reshaping moral life. Cheryl Mattingly offers vivid and heart-wrenching stories to elaborate a first-person ethical framework, forcefully showing the limits of third-person renderings of morality.

Core countries, including the United States, and global financial institutions have exerted an unmatched power to define and implement neoliberal policies, globally. These policies conceive of development as strictly economic in nature and call for a reduction in the size of the state and increasing privatization to guarantee growth. In this paper I examine Ecuador’s adoption of ‘Buen Vivir’ to understand how the state can challenge the neoliberal agenda and how its power is redefined in the process. Buen Vivir is an indigenous Andean philosophy that emphasizes community well-being, reciprocity, solidarity, and harmony with Pachamama (Mother Earth). I analyze public government documents to investigate how policies based upon buen vivir have served to solidify an antisystemic position in a direct challenge to traditional neoliberal notions of economic prosperity, growth, and material accumulation. Through a review of how the state has sought to reposition itself as well as some of the contradictions in the implementation of Buen Vivir, I contend that the state exercises both dominating and transformative power. The case of Ecuador provides insight into the distinguishing role the state can play in resisting neoliberal development and in effect decentering global capitalism.

PurposeMarketing theory and practice is under severe criticism – socialists and the practitioners criticize marketing in its current form which calls for active efforts by marketers to reposition the discipline – making it beneficial to the masses. The Western world is thoroughly investigated based on the opinions of public regarding marketing as a discipline. However, studies which present a non-Western consumer’s attitudes toward the role of marketing in a society are scant. This purpose of this study is to encapsulate Pakistani consumers’ understandings and attitudes toward marketing with an emphasis on their perceptions of the ethicality and transformative power of the discipline.Design/methodology/approachA purposive convenience sample of 40 professionals with diverse non-marketing backgrounds and of the widest possible demographic profile participated in in-depth, unstructured interviews. The content analysis and grounded theory method were used for the analysis.FindingsMarketing is appreciated for creating product awareness and, occasionally, combating social problems, but this positive image is clouded by severely criticizing it for promoting materialism, being irritatingly pervasive and pushy, as well as for using unethical and unfair practices.Practical implicationsThe study offers a valuable insight into the discipline’s performative and social legitimation in a fast-growing Asian economy. The authors recommend paths for a positive repositioning of the discipline that will improve its public image and enhance its potential for being recognized as a force for positive social change.Originality/valueFurther to enhancing our understanding of consumer attitudes toward marketing, this paper’s value lies in it being the first ever exploration of the developing country perspective. Most importantly, it contributes to a debate that could enlighten the much-needed repositioning of marketing as a discipline to make it useful for masses.

This editorial introduces a thematic issue that examines the consequences of the accession of the Central and East European countries to the EU 20 years onward. The socioeconomic transformation of these countries in the pre-accession period was considered a remarkable success, that was attributed to the EU’s conditionality policy. However, in the post-accession period, when these countries gained full membership rights and began playing a more active political role, they started deviating from some EU norms and rules, against a backdrop of EU crises. This shift has been, notably, reflected in concerns about democratic backsliding and rule of law violations. Nonetheless, the contributions in this issue also underscore that these countries have internalized (both top-down and bottom-up) EU norms and rules to a much greater extent than the focus on conditionality would suggest. Moreover, since Russia invaded Ukraine, Central and East European countries have become entrepreneurs of EU policy and bolstered its transformative power. These findings indicate a need to focus not only on the fundamental shortcomings in these countries—as the attention conferred to the (lack of post-accession) conditionality suggests—but also to consider other factors, such as the quality of the EU’s governance and political system, policy learning, geopolitics, and member states’ domestic politics.

The objectives of this paper were to assess the role of the EU in the countries willing to join and committed to the negotiation processes (with a particular focus on the WB region) and to explore further and explain the dynamics of the EU’s crucial role onto the political performance, summarizing internal and external country and region-based developments. For this purpose, the deployed methodology consists of conducting a comparative quantitative analysis, comparing evidence from selected countries and from selected enlargement waves. The main results of the analysis confirmed that the EU’s role in ensuring democratic performances at the country/region level is seriously weakened over time and that it is therefore essential that the EU, especially in uncertain times, rethink and revitalize its democracy-promoting mechanisms to rebuild and re-test itself as a transformative power.