Changing Societies & Personalities, 2021
Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 5–8

https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2021.5.1.119

EDITORIAL

Plurality of Cases – Plurality of Values

Elena A. Stepanova, Editor-in-Chief
Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 
Yekaterinburg, Russia

The mission of the Changing Societies & Personalities journal is quite ambitious: 
the journal “examines how rapid societal-level changes are reshaping individual-
level beliefs, motivations and values – and how these individual-level changes 
in turn are reshaping societies”. Fulfilling such a mission involves examining 
different cases happening to individuals in various countries, societies and 
communities. On the one hand, it is unlikely that we will ever face a lack of such 
cases; on the other, they demonstrate a vast diversity, thus requiring adequate 
and appropriate research methodologies. We hope that the current issue of 
CS&P is a good example of such adequacy and diversity through providing a 
tribune for authors from nine countries.

The authors’ team representing three countries – Mohmmed Salah Hassan, 
Ali Najem, Asbah Razali (Malaysia), Hussam Al Halbusi, Fadi Abdel Muniem 
Abdel Fattah (Oman) and Kent A. Williams (Canada) – presents the results of a 
research study entitled Risk Perception, Self-Efficacy, Trust in Government, and 
the Moderating Role of Perceived Social Media Content During the COVID-19 
Pandemic. The authors stress that, in the turbulent times of the pandemic, the 
critical duty of the research is “to explore and understand behavioural responses 
to the risk of infection…, especially how people assert their risk perception and 
how these perceptions shape self-efficacy beliefs”. Additional important fields of 
the research include the exploration of the risk perception as an interpretation 
and subjective judgment about a current risk; the evaluation of the social media’ 
exposure of the appropriate information; the trust in the government, which is 
vital to the policy’s success during a crisis; and the study of the construct of 
self-efficacy. The researchers gathered data from 512 individuals (students and 
academics) based in Malaysia. In investigating the impact of risk perception on 
trust in government and self-efficacy during the COVID 19 pandemic, the authors 
have made conclusions concerning, in particular, how social media helped shape 
behavioural patterns and attitudes.

Received 25 March 2021 © 2021 Elena A. Stepanova 
Published online 19 April 2021 stepanova.elena.a@gmail.com 

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6 Elena A. Stepanova

Dušan Lužný (Czech Republic) in the article Religious Memory in a Changing 
Society: The Case of India and Papua New Guinea, starts from the research field of 
memory studies with special attention to the interconnection of collective memory 
and collective identity and focuses on a specific aspect of collective memory, 
namely religious memory. In the article, particular examples of material culture 
(religious buildings and places) are analysed as elements of cultural memory 
in order to show their link to collective identity in India Papua New Guinea – the 
societies experiencing fundamental socio-cultural changes associated with 
the process of decolonization and the creation of a new national identity. Dušan 
Lužný points out two changes in collective memory: “The first is the emergence of 
national memory, when as a result of the global spread of the Western conception 
of the state, which is based on the principle of nationalism, and the strengthening 
of emancipatory efforts in the regions, efforts to create their own new state units 
arose and intensified” The second is a change in religious memory associated 
with Christianization, which went hand in hand with colonialization. “While in India, 
for example, Christianity remained marginal and is more or less limited to certain 
localities (e.g., Goa on the west coast), in Papua New Guinea it became dominant 
(more than 90% of the population professes its various forms)”. The author uses two 
specific cases – two culturally and socially different regions of Papua New Guinea 
and India as an analytical application of the concept of religious memory as part of 
collective memory.

The article Digital Political Participation of Western and Eastern Parts of Germany 
Residents (based on Change.org Online Petitions) by Nadezhda Radina and Daria 
Belyashova (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) is focused on the “comparative analysis of 
digital political participation of residents of the eastern and western parts of Germany 
in the form of online petitions to discuss the role of historical experience in shaping 
modern civil action strategies”. A comparative perspective is essential when studying 
the Federal Republic of Germany in the context of its historical separation and 
unification. The total empirical base of the research includes 1,036 petitions and 
covers the period from the creation of the German-language version of the platform 
Change.org in 2012 to March 2018. The authors developed a thematic classifier, which 
was used to divide the petitions into thematic groups: human rights, animal protection, 
culture, politics, migration issues, transport system, Internet, support for people with 
disabilities, financial issues, environmental protection, housing, alcohol/tobacco/
drugs, healthcare, elderly people, sports, education, etc. A comparative analysis of 
petitions from West and East in accordance with the classifier reveals both similarities 
and differences in motivating the creation of online petitions in the west and east of the 
country. The authors stress that the analysis of winning petitions is a relevant source 
of information about efficient relations between the authorities and citizens.

Giorgia Salis and Martin Flegl (México) in their article Cross-Cultural 
Analysis of Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship, underline a significant gender gap 
in the likelihood of starting a business venture, which still exists in most countries 
(notably, gender gap in early-stage entrepreneurship activity is more prominent 
in developed countries than in the developing ones) despite the statistically 



Changing Societies & Personalities, 2021, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 5–8 7

established importance of women’s entrepreneurial action for the economy and 
for the society. The objective of the article was to deepen the existing research 
work “by attempting to find out what variables and/or mix of variables affect gender 
gap in entrepreneurship”. For this reason, G. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and 
the Human Development Index of 55 countries were tested. The authors formulate 
research hypotheses with respect to seven independent variables in order to 
explain the notion of gender gap; as a result, some of them were confirmed and 
some rejected. In addition, the conclusion is made “that rather individualistic, 
pragmatic and flexible societies in terms of societal change, which at the same time 
are adverse to risk and uncertainty related to the future, tend to have a lower rate of 
gender gap in entrepreneurship”. 

In the article Intergenerational Cooperation and Stereotypes in Relation to Age 
in the Working Environment, Danijela Brečko (Slovenia) points out that rapid changes, 
especially in the developed world, that occurred after World War II have significantly 
increased the share of the elderly population in relation to the younger population. 
The article is aimed at analysing such a category as the “older employee” – the age 
group of 50 or 55. Because most companies today have a rich mix of generations 
among their employees in order to use their unique experience and knowledge for 
the benefit of the company, it is equally important to avoid intergenerational conflicts 
in the workplace. In the article, Danijela Brečko presents the results of studying the 
intergenerational cooperation and age management in a Slovenian company in the 
technological industry with over 2,000 employees from four generations, with a large 
share of older employees, and the average age of around 44.8 years. The research 
sample of 150 employees was surveyed using an observation method (focus groups). 
The research seeks to elucidate stereotypes concerning the characteristics of different 
generations of employees, and the nature of their beliefs in terms of the company’s 
expected attitudes toward their work. 

The article Influence of Self-Perception and Importance of Body Image on the 
Methods Implemented to Enhance the Physical Appearance by Mithunasri L V and 
Anil Jadhav (India) is based on the assumption that, in the 21st century, “we live in a 
society that considers physical appearance as one of the most important parameters 
to judge others’ personality and richness. Surrounded by the extreme influence of 
media, we are constantly compelled to see people with perfect looks around us – be 
it in magazines, on the news, in the movies and all over the internet”. The research is 
aimed at achieving a deeper understanding of the impact of physical appearance on 
the self-satisfaction of an individual. The authors propose three research questions: 
Does the level of satisfaction attained through physical appearance impact the 
importance given to it? Does the contentment on the personal body image significantly 
affect the usage of various methods to enhance the physical appearance? Does the 
importance given to physical appearance of an individual have an effect on the various 
techniques implemented to improve the body image? The data for the research was 
collected through a questionnaire-based survey across people living in Tamilnadu; 
462 responses were obtained. The results have proved some of the hypotheses, while 
rejecting others.

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8 Elena A. Stepanova

The BOOK REVIEW section contains a review by Louie Galvez Giray 
(Philippines) of the American social psychologist Deborah H. Gruenfeld’s book 
(2020) Acting with Power. The power is interpreted as a social contract dependent 
on the context. The reviewer finds this book “powerful, compelling but accessible to 
a wide audience due to lively examples, narratives and historical scenarios, which 
illustrate the ideas” of the author.

Discussions around the topics raised in the present issue will be continued in the 
subsequent issues of our journal. In planning to introduce new interesting themes, we 
welcome suggestions from our readers and prospective authors for thematic issues, 
debate sections or book reviews.

For more information, please visit our journal web-site: https://changing-sp.com/  

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