Using satellite nighttime light data as a proxy for economic activity, Chanda and Kabiraj (2020, World Development) studied regional growth and convergence across 520 districts in India. Adopting a reproducible open-science approach, this article builds on their work by extending their main findings on three empirical fronts. First, we illustrate regional convergence patterns using an interactive tool for satellite imagery visualization. Second, we assess the degree of spatial dependence in their main econometric specification. Third, we employ a spatial Durbin model to measure the role of spatial spillovers in the convergence process. Our results indicate that spatial spillovers increase the estimated speed of regional convergence. In our fully specified model, spillovers raise the convergence speed from about 3.0% to about 5.2% per year, which shortens the half-life of regional disparities from roughly 23 to 13 years. We close by illustrating how the same reproducible workflow extends beyond economic output, with an exploratory analysis of how luminosity relates to cultural participation across Indian states.
This paper examines the adoption of immersive technologies -- Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) -- in Italian museums, focusing on how digital tools shape visitor experiences across different regional contexts. Building on earlier exploratory work conducted through online surveys and preliminary field research in winter 2024--25, the study draws on survey data collected in September 2025 from visitors across museums located in diverse territorial and institutional settings. The analysis combines descriptive statistics, regression models, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to investigate the relationships between immersive technologies, visitor satisfaction, emotional engagement, post-visit understanding, and future behavioural intentions. The findings indicate that AR/VR experiences are positively and consistently associated with visitor satisfaction, emotional engagement, and cognitive outcomes across the sampled institutions. Emotional engagement and post-visit understanding emerge as the strongest predictors of positive evaluations and future intentions, while pre-visit expectations and familiarity with immersive technologies play secondary but significant roles. The results also indicate territorial variation in the adoption and perceived quality of immersive technologies, with patterns varying across regional and institutional contexts. Rather than suggesting uniform patterns of digital transformation, the study highlights how immersive experiences are associated with specific regional and institutional conditions that warrant further investigation. By combining experiential and territorial perspectives, the paper contributes to current debates on digital transformation in cultural heritage and smart cultural tourism. The findings suggest that the perceived value of immersive technologies is associated not only with technological availability, but also with the quality of narrative design and the broader contextual conditions of each institution. Future research may extend this work through longitudinal approaches and simulation models exploring the diffusion of AR/VR under different policy and funding scenarios.
Abstract: At dawn on 22 August 1945, an armed group of Japanese men entered a workers' barracks in the village of Mizuho in Japanese-administered southern Sakhalin (Karafuto) and killed the Korean residents inside. Mizuho was not isolated: by the end of August, mass killings of Koreans had occurred in at least four settlements, claiming at least 47 lives. For decades, these events lay beyond the reach of academic historians. In 2021, the declassification of 1,095 folios of Soviet criminal case files from 1946 made systematic analysis possible. This article presents a preliminary reading of the new corpus alongside memoirs and existing historiography. It argues that the killings were a social phenomenon rooted in three interconnected factors: structural vulnerabilities created by Japanese colonial policy; the institutional vacuum of the August 1945 transition; and mechanisms of legitimation that rendered mass killing intelligible to ordinary perpetrators. The article concludes with an assessment of Japanese state responsibility.
Abstract: Russians claim that Ukrainians do not have a culture of their own, that Ukraine is Little Russia—Malorossia. Ukrainians, on the other hand, lament the destruction of Ukrainian culture, especially during the Soviet period. William Noll, writing in The Transformation of Civil Society , says that collectivization seriously damaged expressive cultural forms such as weddings. Both groups look at the situation in Ukraine itself. We argue that examining the cultural expression of Ukrainians living outside of Ukraine shows the true nature of Ukrainian adherence to traditional culture, specifically Ukrainian ritual.
Abstract: This research note examines the Uzbek diaspora in Saudi Arabia, a community formed through three distinct migration waves: those fleeing Soviet consolidation in the 1920s and 1930s, post–World War II migrants, and ethnic Uzbeks displaced by the Soviet–Afghan War. Despite their long-standing presence, the exact size of this diaspora remains unknown due to a lack of official data. The research note reflects on the experience of conducting qualitative research with the Uzbek diaspora in Saudi Arabia as a female Muslim Uzbek researcher. It examines issues such as access, trust, cultural and linguistic familiarity, and the gendered dimensions of face-to-face research. It considers the researcher's privileged position as an academic and as a citizen of a nation-state to which some diaspora members aspire to migrate. In addition, it addresses the challenges of working with undocumented migrants and of transcribing interviews conducted in multiple languages, including older dialects. Beyond its methodological contributions, the research note also offers insights into the lives of the Uzbek diaspora in Saudi Arabia.
