This article introduces the concept of state-constructed third sector, referring to a sector shaped less by welfare gaps or civic mobilization and more by the state. Theories of third sector emergence are largely derived from Western and middle-income contexts and remain undertested in state-led environments. To address this gap, the study analyzes Qatar’s third sector through 40 semi-structured interviews and policy analysis. Drawing on Social Origins Theory and Sociological Institutionalism, it links early charitable practices to the sector’s contemporary rules. Findings show a newly institutionalized sector with active international humanitarian organizations and nationally oriented organizations that rarely engage in advocacy or welfare substitution. Institutionalization occurred through legal reforms, global compliance, and alignment with Qatar National Vision 2030. Within the Social Origins framework, Qatar most closely approximates the statist pathway but constitutes a distinctive rentier variant, in which hydrocarbon wealth enables the state to combine extensive welfare provision with the construction, resourcing, and regulation of a legally distinct and internationally active third sector.

Carolina geranium (Geranium carolinianum L.) infestation is a concern for Florida strawberry [Fragaria × ananassa (Weston) Duchesne ex Rozier (pro sp.) [chiloensis × virginiana]] producers. Current control measures rely on hand weeding or clopyralid applications when the weed is small. Unfortunately, early detection tends not to occur due to occlusion by the canopy. Coordinating postemergence control with emergence timing could improve control. Therefore, the objective of this study was to model the cumulative emergence of G. carolinianum in the row middles and transplant holes on the plastic-mulched beds of Florida strawberry fields using accumulated growing degree days (GDD) (thermal or hydrothermal time) as a predictive variable. A 7-yr study was conducted in two strawberry fields within Hillsborough County, FL, for row middles and a 2-yr study was conducted for bed tops. Emergence was modeled as a function of accumulated standard and restricted GDD. The model was calibrated using 5 randomly selected site-years of data and validated with 2 additional site-years for row middles, while only calibration was done for bed tops. Annual variation in emergence timing was driven by both temperature and moisture in the row middles, whereas emergence on the bed tops was influenced by temperature alone. Incorporating restrictions on GDD accumulation reduced overestimation of GDD and improved model prediction (standard GDD model with adjusted R2 = −0.10, RMSE = 37.31; restricted GDD model with adjusted R2 = 0.90, RMSE = 11.46) and enhanced the model’s applicability for row middles over space and time. In contrast, no improvement in model performance was observed for the bed tops. Emergence began simultaneously, but 50% and 90% cumulative emergence occurred at least a week later on bed tops compared with row middles. Overall, G. carolinianum primarily emerged from mid-October to mid-December, which allows implementation of control measures before harvest initiation.

Psychiatric disorders are complex conditions involving multifactorial, nonlinear causal dynamics, which make effective treatment challenging. To address this complexity, a framework is proposed that distinguishes between types of causality: permissive causality, which pertains to factors affecting the likelihood of an outcome occurring, and instructive causality, which refers to factors shaping the specific features of the outcome. In this framework, when considering an individual as a complex adaptive system, causal processes within the individual are permissive, whereas causal processes outside the individual can be either permissive or instructive in relation to the individual’s global emergent outcomes. Accordingly, when dealing with mental states or complex behaviors, biological substrates – from genes to brain areas – operate through permissive causality, shaping a space of possibilities rather than instructing a specific outcome. By contrast, contextual factors – such as life challenges or subjective appraisal – can also operate through instructive causality, steering behavior and mental states toward specific trajectories. Therapeutic strategies should harness the synergistic interplay between these types of causality, targeting biological substrates to enable transitions in mental states, and leveraging contextual factors to steer these transitions toward mental well-being. Recognizing such interplay holds promise for developing innovative and effective approaches in precision psychiatry, especially for treatments enhancing plasticity – which itself operates through permissive causality – including antidepressants and psychedelics.

Substance dualism claims that humans, and presumably some animals, have an immaterial mind or soul. But where does this soul come from? This paper defends the traducian answer – the unfashionable view that souls are passed on by the parents through procreation. The defence is comparative: the paper argues that traducianism’s two main alternatives – emergent and creationist dualism –endorse assumptions based on which an at least equally plausible traducian model can be constructed. Two of the three traducian models proposed turn out also to be versions of emergentism or creationism. After reconstructing traducianism based on its paradigmatic historical representatives, the paper develops the comparison first with emergentism, then with creationism. Finally, two objections to traducianism are considered. The objection from the origin of the first soul is argued to fail, but the objection from monozygotic twinning appears to hold some weight for those not already committed to life beginning at conception. Thus, traducianism’s plausibility is higher than usually thought, but it partly depends on one’s broader positions.

For several decades, social and cultural anthropology has been enmeshed in an antiformalist mood—a shared sensibility that valorizes disruption, emergence, and complexity over stability and pattern; celebrates flexible concepts resistant to systematization; and treats theoretical frameworks with suspicion. Initially revolutionary, this antiformalism has long since become mainstream, settling into recognizable conventions. This article traces antiformalism’s manifestations across diverse theoretical moments, from post-structuralism and practice theory through material and ontological turns, showing how form nevertheless persisted—often disavowed but relied upon—within ostensibly antiformalist approaches. We argue that the alternation between formalism and antiformalism constitutes something like the beating theoretical heart of anthropology, operating both at the macro level of half-century disciplinary shifts and at the microlevel of individual arguments where formal and anti-formal moves remain necessarily interwoven. Against this background, we detect an emergent tonal shift: a rising enthusiasm for form manifest in renewed attention to social and cultural regularities as puzzles worthy of explanation, and in a different valuation of conceptual work that emphasizes robustness, sharp edges, and shareability. We map this new formalist sensibility and identify its characteristic epistemic virtues—coherence, corrigibility, and collaboration—which distinguish it from both earlier structuralisms and recent antiformalist approaches, positioning anthropology as a diverse yet collective comparative endeavor.

This article examines the hybrid network structure of the global sustainability governance system, focusing on the evolving relationships between private transnational regulators (PTRs) and intergovernmental organizations (IOs). We argue that a defining feature of this structure is the mutual dependence between PTRs and IOs: PTRs invoke public international law instruments (PILIs) – and, by extension, the authority of the IOs behind them – to bolster their own authority and to enhance the normative force of the standards they promulgate. IOs rely on PTRs to disseminate their norms within corporate settings, thereby strengthening their compliance capacities. This interdependence carries significant synergistic potential. We examine the grounding relationship between PTRs and PILIs/IOs through extensive network analysis based on a specially curated dataset comprising 55 PTRs, 393 private standards, 261 PILIs (including treaties, conventions, and declarations), and 41 IOs. Citation patterns within this network support our thesis. We also offer tentative evidence regarding the second prong of our model and outline directions for future research. Finally, we assess the vulnerabilities of this interdependent structure, highlighting the fragility of the global sustainability legal order in the face of rising nationalism and anti-multilateralist pressures.

Enterovirus A71 was first isolated in California in 1969, with the earliest retrospective detection traced back to 1963 in the Netherlands, but its early spread remains unclear. Using age-specific seroprevalence data from children aged 1–10 years in Kawasaki City, Japan, collected annually from 1966–1973, we applied serocatalytic models to estimate annual force of infection during 1959–1973. Several models were tested, incorporating different assumptions about time-varying force of infection, age-dependent susceptibility, and seroreversion, to identify the best fit to the data. Model comparison identified the models with independent annual infection probability or two distinct outbreak periods, both including age-dependent force of infection and seroreversion, as optimal. All top models consistently identified two major transmission periods: 1961–1962 and 1968–1969. The two-outbreak model estimated mean attack rates of 21.8% and 37.8% for the earlier and later outbreaks under seroreversion, and 19.8% and 34.9% under age-dependent force of infection. Our findings provide evidence of enterovirus A71 circulation in Japan during two distinct periods in the 1960s, coinciding with early detections in Europe and the USA, suggesting global distribution by that decade. This study underscores the value of testing archived sera for reconstructing pathogen emergence and spread.

This paper presents the theory of improvisational emergence, an account of how social phenomena emerge from improvisational processes. I build outward from the small-group improvisational encounter to provide an account of the relationship between individuals, groups, and societies. Social entities, including groups and societies, emerge from people engaged in group improvisation. But even though social entities emerge from individuals in interaction, their study cannot be reduced to the study of individuals, because once having emerged, social entities have causal power over individuals. The theory of improvisational emergence addresses the structure-agency relationship and the micro-macro debate in sociological theory. It moves beyond practice and structuration theories in positing an ontological separation between people and society. Improvisational emergence allows us to explain the relationship between the improvisational creativity of each participating individual and the collective improvisationality of the group. A complete understanding of social phenomena, including social structures, norms, and cultures, must be grounded in the theoretical and empirical study of creative improvisation.