In this paper, we perceive boredom as a potential resource for creativity in qualitative research. We present three main arguments. First, boredom is often an inevitable stage on the way to research excitement and can even serve as an important clue leading to analytic surprises. Second, there is a methodological need to reflect on boredom in order to understand the researcher’s perception of meaningfulness and meaninglessness. Particularly, we show how the ‘interview society’, characterized by the dominance of the therapeutic discourse, shapes researchers’ expectations regarding what is considered ‘interesting’ or ‘boring.’ Finally, the researcher’s experience of boredom may provide insights into the very phenomenon under investigation. We flesh out these arguments by showing how the researcher’s boredom during interviews reflects the interviewees’ emotional style, expected of (women) managers in the neoliberal culture: emotional restraint and a façade of rationality and objectivity.

On 29 April 1956, Ro'i Rothberg was killed in an ambush in Nahal Oz, a Kibbutz located just outside the Gaza Strip. Moshe Dayan, Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, deliv-ered aneulogy, part of which contained the following: Early yesterday morning Ro'i was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him and he did not see those waiting in ambush for him. Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate. It is not among the Arabs in Gaza, but in our own midst that we must seek Roi's blood.' Dayan's implicit recognition of the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians in Gaza — griev-ances which arose from dispossession and colonial violence — offers a fascinating counterpoint to contemporary rhetoric. It also raises key questions, both sociological, moral, and normative: How and why do victims turn to violence in response to the perpetration of violence against them? What are the mechanisms of their mobilization? And is this violence legitimate?

This paper explores the rise of financial influencers (‘finfluencers’) on social media and their impact on shaping financial subjectivities. Employing the dual theoretical frameworks of economy-as-communication and financialization of everyday life, we uncover how finfluencers transform individuals’ understanding of and engagement with personal finance through digital storytelling, strategic use of syntax and symbols, participatory engagement and diverse representation. Finfluencers make financial topics more accessible, but in doing so they also accelerate the financialization of everyday life by normalizing finance and investing as mainstream preoccupations. As more individuals turn to social media for financial guidance, understanding the complex dynamics of finfluencer impact is crucial for navigating the evolving landscape of personal finance and financial education in the digital era. The paper emphasizes the need for ongoing research, critical reflection and efforts to promote digital and financial literacy to ensure the benefits of this new form of financial influence are distributed equitably while mitigating potential harms.

This chapter focuses on educational governance in Israel, charting events since the independence of the state that led to and cemented over the years its deep-rooted centralized governance. Furthermore, this chapter examines the hierarchical division of labor and the pandemic’s impact on the political culture of Israeli education. Ultimately, the historical moment created by the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed a cultural preference for centralized governance, which limits any pressure that the pandemic exerts toward decentralization.

As financial advice migrates online, “finfluencers” are democratizing access to financial knowledge, challenging the historically male-dominated advisory landscape. This mixed-methods study explores how gender shapes the creation and consumption of finfluencer content. Qualitative analysis reveals gendered advice patterns: Men emphasize quantitative aspects, whereas women incorporate narratives and personal stories. Experimental surveys uncover subconscious same-gender preferences in advice receptivity, contrasting with stated desires for gender-neutral guidance. These implicit affinities persist even when advice content is anonymized and gender-balanced. Paradoxically, finfluencers introduce diverse voices and challenge traditional norms yet also subtly cater to gendered perspectives. The research highlights the complex role of gender in the digital financial advice market, where expanding inclusivity coexists with enduring biases. Findings offer insights for developing more equitable and empowering financial education in the digital age while revealing the subconscious factors shaping the emerging finfluencer discourse.

This postscript addresses the findings of researchers examining the complex relationship between strict religious observance, gender dynamics, feminism, and state transformations. It underscores the importance of gender analysis within religious groups to enhance our theoretical frameworks. Highlighting religious movements' insights into contemporary practices, it considers global gender and sexuality norm shifts, from same-sex marriage legalization in Europe to the #MeToo movement’s impact. Stadler critically analyzes the papers in this Special Issue, and illustrates how these groups navigate changing moral and religious landscapes. This analysis provides sociologists and anthropologists with a crucial perspective on fundamentalist groups’ responses to modern gender, sexual, and identity challenges. Key themes include religious-state entwinements, tradition’s reconfigurations, gender, and feminist views on religious extremism. Stadler introduces case studies across Christian, Muslim, and Jewish contexts globally, highlighting how comparative analysis reveals fundamentalism, gender, and state interactions. By synthesizing the Special Issue’s contributions, Stadler advances religious theory, illuminating the intricate ties between devout religion, gender dynamics, and the state. This postscript advocates for further research into these vital areas, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of religious beliefs and practices’ transformative effects on societal and individual levels.

This study examines how sacred sites and their agents construct the mediatization of Mary. A qualitative analysis of Instagram postings of four European holy sites of the Virgin combined with ethnographic fieldwork identified three primary ways in which webmasters manage Marian sites to amplify her charismatic appeal and inspire awe: (1) Marycentrism: Situating Mary as the all-encompassing focal protagonist that is separate and aggrandized on postings; (2) Enchanting Pragmatism: Imbuing religious symbols in informational and institutional knowledge concerning the Marian site; and (3) Open-Ended Participation: Displaying public events of saint veneration to elicit voluntary communicative acts that engage users with the physical space, and provide a shared experience of the mediatized events leading to a connection with the transcendental. The discussion centers on the ways that mediatization has transformed her icon into a ubiquitous image of a sole mother Goddess while altering represented and in-person worship and rituals.

In this paper, we explore the transformation of a state-regulated, highly militarized contested space, designed to guarantee security and exercise state control, into an arena of spontaneous religious creative practices. We investigate the processes of transformation that a highly militarized borderland surrounding is undergoing owing to the religious influence of two female shrines: Rachel’s tomb and Our Lady of the Wall. These two shrines, located on opposing sides of the wall, are affecting the role, physical appearance, mythologies, meaning, and experiences of being in the world of this contested space, reclaiming it for Jewish and Christian rituals. Since its establishment in 1948, Israel’s undefined borders and demand for security against terrorist attacks led to practices of territorial appropriation to expand its control over contested zones. We show how these contested spatialities, designed to serve as militarized space, are gradually being converted by grassroots agents into spontaneous spaces of religious revival and creativity. We argue that the transformation of this militarized area into places of spontaneous religious practices can be attributed to the interaction between human and material agency, ritual practices, and temporality.

Objective We consider whether heterosexual unions in which male partners are more gender egalitarian experience less union dissolution. Background Gender revolution theory argues that as men become more egalitarian in their attitudes and behaviors, female partners experience reduced work–family conflict, and couples enjoy more stable partnerships. In contrast, the “flip side” perspective argues that consequences of men's increased egalitarian behavior for their own experience of role incompatibility may counterbalance effects on union stability. Method Analyzing a sample of roughly 46,600 women-years from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society (1993–2019), we estimate random-intercept and fixed-effects models of union dissolution. Explanatory variables include, for each partner, measures of egalitarianism in gender role attitudes and weekly housework hours. Results Odds of union dissolution are not associated with men's absolute level of egalitarian attitudes, but they are higher when men's attitudes are less egalitarian than their partner's. Neither the absolute number of men's housework hours, nor their share of total housework, is associated with the odds of dissolution. Conclusions Our findings are not generally supportive of gender revolution theory. Counterbalancing effects may provide an explanation for the findings, as per the flip side approach. Implications Taking a couple-level perspective advances understanding of the associations between gender egalitarianism and union dissolution.

Background: Research suggests that, following major changes in women’s roles in developed societies, gender relations within heterosexual partnerships are entering a second stage, during which men’s roles are the main source of change. Some scholars suggest that changes in gender roles occur differentially across social classes, as reflected in variation across educational groups. Objective: We ask how variation in the educational level of both partners is related to: (1) gender role attitudes and housework contributions of each partner; and (2) consensus between partners on egalitarian gender role attitudes, and gaps between partners in housework hours. Methods: Analyzing British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society data on currently married, heterosexual partnerships in the United Kingdom (1992–2018) from a couple-level perspective, we compare across four educational types defined by whether partners have a tertiary-level degree. Results: We find that (1) it is not the male partner’s but rather the female partner’s tertiary education that is a key factor in understanding variation in partners’ gender role attitudes and housework hours, as well as couple-level consensus on gender egalitarian attitudes and between-partner differences in housework hours; and (2) gender gaps in housework hours between partners are smallest among couples in which women are highly educated, primarily because highly educated women do substantially fewer hours than less educated women rather than because their partners do substantially more hours. Contribution: Our results highlight that women’s class status, as measured by their education (as distinct from their partner’s), is related to meaningful variation within the household in terms of partners’ values and day-to-day experiences of chores.