(NOV. 7)—The latest issue of “Social Science Diliman” (Vol. 10, No. 2) of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development is now available online.

The issue contains five articles from various fields, products of nine researchers from different disciplines. These articles are: “Some Notes and Critiques of Selected Lexicographic Texts in Bikol” by Louward Allen Zubiri; “Teacher’s Interaction Styles during Sociodramatic Play that Promote Reading and Writing among Preschoolers” by Excelsa C. Tongson; “Performing Cosmopolitan Entanglement in the Philippine ‘Pista’: Sariaya ‘Agawan’ Festival” by Shirley V. Guevarra, Corazon F. Gatchalian and Sir Anril P. Tiatco; “Legitimacy Crisis and Elite Conspiracy in Local Government Administration in Nigeria” by Eddy Akpomera and Kingsley Ufuoma Omoyibo; and “Factors Affecting Fertility Desires in the Philippines” by Clarissa C. David and Jenna Mae L. Atun.

Zubiri’s “Some Notes and Critiques of Selected Lexicographic Texts in Bikol” analyzed the structure and diachronic development of Bikol lexicography based on six Bikol dictionaries, the earliest of which is the influential Bikol dictionary of Lisboa (1865). In the author’s Abstract, the study is said to present “a preliminary description of lexicographic work done in Bikol and traces the shift in the paradigm of dictionary making from the Spanish era to the present.”

Tongson’s article is about a teacher’s facilitation of reading and writing during sociodramatic play among Filipino preschoolers. “The interaction style of the teacher revealed her ability to perform within the context of the play and the ways she assisted children in performing reading and writing activities. The considerable increase in the frequency of children’s literacy activities during sociodramatic play could be attributed to the combination of extending style interaction and the integration of literacy materials in the dramatic play area,” Tongson explained.

“Performing Cosmopolitan Engtanglement in the Philippine ‘Pista’: Sariaya ‘Agawan’ Festival” by Guevarra, Gatchalian and Tiatco is about the ‘pista’ as a performance of the concepts of cosmopolitanism (a global phenomenon of a set of shared beliefs among different groups) and entanglement (a cultural web of similarities and differences). “It focuses on the social preparation of food to tease out how the recognized local allow their cultural templates to overlap with those of the acknowledged nonlocal without the social tensions that usually accompany such territorial incursions,” wrote Eulalio R. Guieb III, editor-in-chief of “Social Science Diliman.”

Akpomera and Omoyibo’s article, meanwhile, puts in perspective the legitimacy crisis and elite conspiracy in Nigeria’s local government council administration. Guieb, in his editor’s note, said the study is relevant “in understanding why and how new democracies fail to bring government closer to the grassroots.”

Finally, David and Atun’s “Factors Affecting Fertility Desires in the Philippines” found that fertility desires change over a person’s lifetime depending on circumstances. The importance of the article, Guieb wrote, “lies on its focus on gender preferences and the inclusion of men in its analysis.”

Guieb III said “Social Science Diliman” featured the five articles as part of “its aim to provide a wide forum for a dialogue of various issues that inform the networked disciplines in which most scholars work.” The latest journal’s photo cover entitled “Grasyang Mailap” (Elusive Grace) is by Dulce Amor B. Verdolaga, and is a glimpse of the level of poverty that a large chunk of the country’s population daily experience.