Wrap up the first month of 2024 with KnE Publishing as we bring you leading Open Access research that considers some of the world’s greatest challenges and potential solutions. This month’s Top Picks explores a range of topics published on our platform, from environmental justice to the impact of processed foods on our health.
1. Are Virtual Offices the Future of Work?
2020 was a year of massive changes in the way we worked. As cities began to quarantine and offices locked their doors, many people around the world had to quickly learn to adapt to Zoom meetings, virtual office tools, and flexible work to keep their businesses and livelihoods afloat. While COVID-19 restrictions have significantly reduced since then, virtual offices have maintained their relevance in today’s digitalised world. Many researchers have therefore begun investing their time in dissecting their impact on our world and the ways that we engage with each other and engage with ourselves.
Learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of virtual offices here.
2. What Role Can Religion Play in Promoting Environmental Justice?
Religion is a knowledge system that informs the ways of life for many around the world. While many may deem religious knowledge as traditional and outdated in today’s context, others work to bridge the gap and use indigenous knowledge models to combat modern issues. Within this capacity, religion can teach us about our relationships to each other and ourselves, and most notably can act as a guide for how we treat our planet. One study explores the role that Islamic doctrine plays in informing environmental justice movements, as researchers reflect on the sacred significance of nature within Islamic philosophies.
Explore the ways that religious knowledge can help guide environmental justice movements here.
3. How Can Processed Foods Harm Your Health?
With most of today’s food being mass produced in factories around the world, delicious salty treats and sugary desserts continue to overwhelm supermarket shelves as shoppers pass by looking for their next snack. But what are we really doing to our bodies when we give into our tastebuds’ deepest desires? Our gut – known by some as the body’s second brain – is at the center of this question, as researchers explore the relationship between processed food and gut health, and the consequences of our society’s addiction to unhealthy food choices.
Find out more about how your gut might be struggling to keep up with your cravings here.
4. Can Your Shopping Habits Help Save the Planet?
As consumers in a digitised world, we’re often subject to heavy doses of advertisement from global and local businesses looking to sell you their goods. While companies compete for the consumer’s attention in a growingly saturated market, buyers are being put in the unique position of controlling what they buy and from who. As global concerns around the climate crisis rise, many are beginning to turn to young spenders to influence the production of sustainable products through their purchasing power.
This study explores these observations by analysing buying power on the production of sustainable Tupperware in Indonesia.
5. How Can Governments Ensure the Rights of Indigenous Peoples?
Over the last few decades many countries have sought to undo some of the legacies of colonisation that left many indigenous peoples around the world isolated and systemically marginalised. Some countries worked to assimilate indigenous tribes into modern society, while others worked to center the voices of the marginalised communities to build new ways of belonging. This study explores the ways that Indonesia is working to develop and protect the rights of the indigenous communities within their borders.
Learn more about the relationship between legal rights and traditional peoples here.
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