JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEVELOPMENT

VILLAGE INSTITUTIONS, COMMUNAL RESOURCES AND PASTORAL LIFE IN TANGIR VALLEY, GILGIT-BALTISTAN: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro — 2026-10-01

This paper presents an ethnographic study of village institutions, communal resources and pastoral life in Tangir Valley, Diamer District, Gilgit-Baltistan. It draws on repeated ethnographic fieldwork beginning in 2000, supplemented by follow-up telephone interviews conducted in 2025 and 2026. The study includes key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, informal conversations, and visits to villages, nullahs and pastures. It documents the division of Tangir into Roms and villages and discusses local institutions and functionaries, particularly the Jirga, Justero (Yustero), Kul, Zaitu and Wai Segalo. It also considers customary distinctions between ownership and use rights and the indigenous distribution of communal resources through Dookar and Dalo. Pastoral practices, including the seasonal movement of livestock to nullahs (side-valleys) and pastures and the celebration of Gape Khushle on the safe return of shepherds and their herds, further reveal the close relationship between livelihood and collective village life. The paper argues that village institutions, customary authority, communal resources, and pastoral practices in Tangir Valley are interconnected parts of a locally rooted system through which communities have traditionally organised village affairs, managed shared resources, and maintained their relationship with the surrounding landscape.

DOES RENEWABLE ENERGY RESHAPE THE RESOURCE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION NEXUS? EVIDENCE FROM RESOURCE INTENSIVE ASIAN ECONOMIES

Ayesha Siddiqui — 2026-10-02

Are the adversative environmental impacts of natural-resource reliance being reduced by renewable energy? The present study investigates the linkage among natural-resource rents, renewable-energy, and CO₂ emissions in the nine resource-intensive Asian economies in the period 1995–2022. The analysis uses balanced panel data, and fixed effects with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors as the main estimator and CS-ARDL as a robustness framework are employed. The outcomes show that the relation between renewable-energy and CO₂ emissions is still strong. In contrast, emissions are not significantly influenced by natural-resource rents directly. More crucially, natural resource rent–renewable energy interaction is statistically unimportant, which suggests that there is no strong evidence that renewable energy declines the natural resource rent–emissions relationship. The CS-ARDL results support an adjustment process; the long-run coefficients are not statistically significant. Overall, the outcomes indicate that renewable energy makes a direct contribution to the reduction of emissions, and that there is still a need for larger structural transformation to achieve a separation between the resources and their impact on the environment.

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND JOB EMBEDDEDNESS: THE MEDIATION OF ROLE AMBIGUITY ACROSS INDIVIDUAL, GROUP, ORGANIZATIONAL, AND INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL LEVELS

Kamran Naeem — 2026-10-03

Organizational learning has allied with employee and organizational performance, but limited attention has given to the processes through which organizational learning processes contribute to employees’ job embeddedness. This study examines the relationship between organizational learning and job embeddedness and explains the mediating role of role ambiguity. Organizational learning studied on four levels: individual-level learning, group-level learning, organizational-level learning, and inter-organizational-level learning. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design used for study, and data collected through a structured questionnaire from 245 employees working in service-sector organizations in Pakistan. Regression analysis and bootstrapping was used to test the proposed relationships and mediation effects. The findings reveals that organizational learning and sub levels are positively related with job embeddedness and negatively with role ambiguity. Whereas role ambiguity is negatively related with job embeddedness. The study explores that role ambiguity significantly mediates the relationships between organizational learning (and each of its four levels) with job embeddedness. The findings suggest that organizational learning helps employees’ job embeddedness by creating opportunities for knowledge acquisition, social connection, reducing uncertainty regarding roles, responsibilities, authority, and performance expectations.