Arts and Humanities

Abstract: This paper explores the role of visual art beyond the realm of individual artists, emphasizing its impact on community development, collective identity, and social engagement. As a universal language, art transcends personal expression, becoming a powerful tool for shaping perspectives, fostering connections, and addressing shared societal concerns. When integrated into public spaces, visual art transforms environments, giving communities a voice and a means to reflect their values, histories, and aspirations. Murals, sculptures, installations, and performance art serve as more than creative expressions—they act as catalysts for awareness, inclusion, and change. By engaging with local narratives and cultural identities, these artistic interventions empower people to participate in shaping their surroundings. This paper examines case studies in India where art has moved beyond the individual artist and become a collaborative force in social, economic, and cultural development. Furthermore, it highlights future possibilities for research into emerging trends, interdisciplinary approaches, and innovative applications of visual art as a dynamic and participatory practice.

Abstract: Virtual reality (VR) survival horror is often discussed in terms of heightened fear and immersion, yet less attention has been paid to how fear is organized across different atmospheric conditions and how this organization differs from non-VR gameplay. This study approaches immersive fear as a process emerging from the interaction among atmospheric configuration, embodied regulation, and post-play interpretation. A se-quential mixed-methods design was employed using Resident Evil Village as the em-pirical context. Study 1 combined scene-based observation, synchronized gameplay re-cordings, and post-play interviews with eight participants to examine how fear was enacted across three contrasted atmospheric configurations: combat pressure, psycho-logical ambiguity, and spatial disorientation. Study 2 extended this analysis through a within-subject experiment with 30 participants who completed both VR and non-VR versions of the same gameplay content under standardized conditions. The findings show that immersive fear is not a uniform increase in emotional intensity. In Study 1, different atmospheric configurations elicited distinct modes of embodied regulation, including defensive retreat, hesitant exposure, and cautious reorientation, while behavioral re-sponses and retrospective accounts often diverged in systematic ways. In Study 2, paired-samples tests showed that VR produced lower valence, higher arousal, reduced perceived control, higher fear ratings, stronger immersion, and greater motion sickness than non-VR gameplay. These effects were scene-sensitive rather than uniform: psy-chologically ambiguous environments produced the highest fear ratings under VR. Across both studies, prior VR and genre experience shaped how players interpreted and regulated threat, and short-term residual effects indicated that fear extended beyond gameplay. These results suggest that VR modifies not only the intensity but also the organization of fear. More broadly, the study reframes immersive fear as a temporally distributed process linking atmospheric configuration, embodied regulation, and post-play interpretation in survival horror gameplay.

Abstract: The accelerating influence of artificial intelligence in education raises urgent questions about how human dignity, cultural continuity, and ethical responsibility can be safeguarded in technologically saturated contexts. To respond to this concern, this study adopted a qualitative concept-generative design, drawing on narrative inquiry, focus groups, ethnographic observation, document analysis, and reflexive journaling to explore the role of liberal arts education at St. Michael’s College of Iligan, Inc., Philippines. Addressing a gap in scholarship that often sidelines Global South perspectives, the research foregrounded the voices of thirty (30) CAS students whose insights reached data saturation that produced ten significant themes. Guided by critical pedagogy, sociocultural theory, and Wellness and Resilience Theories, the findings affirmed that liberal arts education is not peripheral but foundational. This enables students to interrogate bias, foster ethical reflection, and resist algorithmic authority. Institutional frameworks such as CHED memoranda, PAASCU accreditation standards, ISO 21001:2018, and RVM EMC’s QTIME concepts reinforced the responsibility of higher education to embed liberal arts into curriculum design as safeguards for human futures. Results showed how liberal arts cultivate resilience, adaptability, and civic responsibility, aligning with Catholic Ignacian Marian values while contributing to Global South perspectives that challenge Eurocentric narratives of AI literacy. By integrating civilizational knowledge with technological literacy, liberal arts classrooms foreground dialogue, cultural archives, and reflexive engagement. This ensures that such Liberal Arts remain responsive to both heritage and innovation. The research underscores that only liberal arts education enables us to remain more human in the digital age. Mirroring UNESCO’s challenge, this paper demonstrates SDG compliant pathways that affirms the global relevance of liberal arts in shaping ethical futures for AI. It concludes with a challenge that institutions must move beyond rhetorical affirmation and embed liberal arts centrally in AI governance. Liberal Arts should never be placed at the periphery but be recognized as decisive infrastructures accountable to justice, human dignity, and cultural resilience.

Abstract: Student living environments have a significant impact on educational quality and academic outcomes. However, limited empirical research has focused on the condition of female student housing in Iran. This study conducts a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of a representative on-campus female dormitory (Eram 3) at Shiraz University. A comprehensive evaluation framework was developed through an extensive literature review and structured into eleven performance indicators across three key dimensions: technical, functional, and behavioral. Data was collected using a 65-item questionnaire completed by 62 students who had resided in the building for at least one semester. Additional qualitative insights were gathered through focus group discussions and systematic observation, enhancing the reliability and contextual depth of the findings. Results indicate widespread dissatisfaction among residents, particularly in relation to indoor air quality, lighting, room layout, and privacy. The technical dimension received the lowest satisfaction scores, especially concerning air quality and lighting. Functionally, residents reported inadequate room sizes and limited flexibility in furniture arrangement. The behavioral dimension revealed dissatisfaction with visual privacy and the aesthetic quality of interior spaces. Based on these findings, the study proposes targeted improvements to ventilation systems, artificial and natural lighting, acoustic performance, and spatial layout. The research contributes to a gender-sensitive, user-centered POE framework applicable to similar residential environments in developing countries.

Abstract: This study examines the transformation of human capital mobility in the digital era under the accelerating pace of socio-technological change and analyzes the resulting challenges for sustainable development. It identifies the key characteristics and drivers of contemporary human capital mobility and considers their broader implications for social development and governance. The research is based on a structured review, systematization, and critical comparison of academic literature and analytical reports from international organizations. The findings show that contemporary mobility is characterized by pace of change, pervasiveness, and globality and is driven by digital transparency, remote work, AI, automation, and state support. Contemporary human capital mobility leads to the rapid redistribution of human capital, the reorganization of social space, and shifts in social values, while the pace of socio-technological change intensifies these effects and makes adaptation more difficult. The main challenge for sustainable development lies in the growing mismatch between the pace of socio-technological change and the capacity of governance institutions, infrastructure, and social institutions to adapt.

Abstract: A central challenge in the structural diagnostics of paintings is the accurate, repeatable non-invasive, ideally non-contact, assessment for the detailed documentation of subsurface defects such as detachments and cracks generated by inter-layer de-cohesion resulting in material degradation and interrelated propagation of defects; all of which precede visible detection of surface damage. The ultimate aim is the protection of the precious irreplaceable painted surface. Currently advanced imaging techniques used in structural diagnosis of artworks, including Digital Holographic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (DHSPI), Infrared Thermography (IRT), Digital Speckle Shearography (DSS), are used in providing the valuable structural information. Main contribution is in subsurface defect localisation and despite differences in resolution, displacement sensitivity, defect characterisation, depth discrimination, efficiency of data retrieval, info utilisation and quantitative phase retrieval, under the especially demanding constrains in the investigation in Cultural Heritage (CH) documentation, these techniques can trace subsurface and bulk discontinuities’ safely and efficiently. Digital Holographic Speckle Pattern Interferometry (DHSPI), is a custom-made interferometry system, based on principles of holographic and speckle interferometry, developed to respond to the unique combination of requirements in CH and for structural documentation in paintings diagnostics; which either on wood or wall represent a continuous mechanics problem of a solid object with an inhomogeneous stratigraphic anisotropic construction that mathematically becomes an interferometric phase-field multi-physics interpretation problem. The portable DHSPI lab prototype aims to solve it, implements highly coherent diverged laser beams for safely illuminating large scale surfaces and recording digital sequence of images of the surface as displaced after a transient alteration; which are processed under numerical phase reconstruction algorithms to provide a whole and local phase-resolvable full-field measurement of out-of-plane surface-normal displacements induced by controlled low thermal excitation. It combines a novel thermo-mechanical monitoring methodology for substantiate a richer description of defect morphology features and structure dynamics. In this work the conceptual foundation of DHSPI as a CH tool is presented, its evolution from classical holographic interferometry to digital implementations with sequential interferometry and progressive implementation of sequential thermo-interferometry application is discussed, while DHSPI applicability to the multi-layered structures of CH as appear in wall- panel- and canvas paintings, is analysed. Related systems are also discussed in relevance of CH demands. Particular emphasis is placed on interferometric sensitivity mechanisms, fringe pattern wrapped phase utilisation and unwrapped phase-map interpretation, excitation strategies, and comparative performance against established non-destructive testing techniques. The presented critical technical and advanced methodological review briefly also explores emerging perspectives, including multi-modal instrumentation as hybrid DHSPI–thermography AI-assisted automatic interpretation. and the lab-based conceptual framework of multi-channel holographic recording for simultaneous displacement component extraction. By synthesis in optical metrology and heritage diagnostics developments, this work positions DHSPI within a broader era-transition from passive-imaging toward information-based diagnostics through the post-imaging interference analysis, a displacement-based structural metrology approach, contributing to the advancement in multi-modal preventive conservation strategies for paintings and large-format heritage surfaces. It proposes to hold-on to DHSPI as a high-sensitivity monitoring multitask tool capable of guiding implementation of complimentary techniques and addressing unresolved challenges in painting conservation from standardised documentation protocols to research on aging deterioration mechanisms.

Abstract: This article advances a systematic theological diagnosis of the contemporary crisis in Christian thought, contending that dominant modes of theologizing have become epistemically, politically, and spiritually toxic. Beginning with a critical analysis of the habitus of theologization, it demonstrates how inherited theological dispositions reproduce and normalize forms of violence embedded within colonial, cisheteropatriarchal, and necropolitical regimes. The study then interrogates the proliferation of theological narratives of terror and the corrosive effects of decent, docile, and obedient theologies that legitimize exclusion, dehumanization, and imperial projects—most starkly exemplified in the deployment of theological discourses to rationalize the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the systematic marginalization of queer/cuir/maricas, trans, and gender-nonconforming bodies. Against this backdrop, the article proposes two liberative antidotes. The first is Palestinian Liberation Theologies (PLT), which reclaim theological imagination through situated resistance, political commitment, and forms of spiritual endurance. The second emerges from Latin American Liberation Theology (LLT), as reconfigured through queer/cuir/marica dissident experiences, whose embodied, indecent, and decolonial imaginaries disrupt regimes of theological purity and open pathways for insurgent, life-affirming practices. Taken together, these antitoxic interventions articulate a decolonial and emancipatory horizon for theology—one grounded in relationality, insurgent imagination, and activist commitment. In this sense, theological detoxification is not merely a critical task but an indispensable condition for envisioning alternative worlds amid ongoing civilizational collapse.

Abstract: This study examines the phenomenon of pseudoconfident knowledge in the context of the everyday use of generative artificial intelligence. By pseudoconfident knowledge, we mean a response that is substantively plausible, rhetorically coherent, and outwardly persuasive but is treated and understood as knowledge before its actual reliability has been established. Of course, we do not use the term “pseudoconfident knowledge” to denote knowledge in the strict epistemological sense. Rather, it denotes a special form of AI-generated content that acquires the status of knowledge in the user’s perception before its reliability, source-based justification, or factual correctness have been established. The problem here is not that such an answer is already knowledge but that it is prematurely accepted as knowledge because of its coherence, completeness, and rhetorical confidence. The aim of the study is to identify the epistemic gap between the everyday operational integration of artificial intelligence and the user’s critical ability to distinguish between persuasiveness and justification. The theoretical framework combines approaches to AI literacy, epistemic vigilance, and contemporary forms of digital mediation in the circulation of knowledge. The empirical basis of the study is an online survey of AI users. The analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, contingency tables, and methods for testing associations between categorical variables. The results show that the key differentiating factor is not the frequency of AI use but the strategy used in handling its responses. More epistemically robust positions are associated with practices of comparison, editing, and verification, whereas uncritical acceptance of the answer is associated with greater vulnerability to pseudoconfident knowledge. We conclude that the spread of generative artificial intelligence is producing a new socioepistemic problem that calls for a shift in emphasis from simple instrumental literacy toward a culture of verification, doubt, and epistemic responsibility.

Abstract: This article examines cross-Strait variation in Chinese baseball terminology through a document-based comparison of two primary sources: the terminology appendix contained in the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association’s baseball rules and the China Baseball Association’s Basic Terminology of Baseball standard. Based on Supplementary Dataset S1, a cleaned 363-entry English-Chinese comparison dataset, the study investigates how baseball terms differ across the Strait in documentary coverage, lexical designation, expression style, and communicative relevance. The analysis identifies 214 directly comparable entries with renderings on both sides. Of these, 101 are classified as convergent or near-convergent, while 113 show lexical divergence. A further 149 entries do not enter the directly comparable subset. The findings show that cross-Strait baseball terminology is shaped by more than isolated word-level difference. Taiwan-side terms often preserve compact and conventionalized forms used in baseball practice, whereas Mainland standardized forms frequently display a more explicit and institutionally codified style. The article argues that such variation should not be treated simply as inconsistency, but as specialist-language variation shaped by different historical, institutional, and communicative conditions. On this basis, the article suggests a graded, communication-oriented approach that tolerates low-sensitivity variants, cross-references moderate-sensitivity terms, and coordinates high-sensitivity rule terms for umpiring, commentary, translation, and instruction.

Abstract: This study employed the 5-meter Accuracy Digital Elevation Model (DEM) developed by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan to analyze the spatial distribution of Yayoi-period archaeological sites using a Geographic Information System (GIS)–based approach. Unlike conventional prefecture-level classifications, this method enables higher spatial precision and more intuitive visual interpretation. The analysis provides new insights into the long-standing debate over the location of Yamatai (Yamataikoku) approximately 1,800 years ago and significantly increases the likelihood that it was located in northern Kyushu. The results also reveal clear regional specialization within northern Kyushu. The areas around present-day Asakura City and Ogori City appear to have functioned primarily as military centers, whereas the Yoshinogari site—one of the largest Yayoi settlements in Japan—shows strong specialization in agriculture, especially large-scale wet-rice cultivation. The area corresponding to present-day Fukuoka City likely served as a major urban center combining both military and agricultural functions. In addition, the study suggests that “Jimmu’s Eastern Expedition” may preserve certain historical elements rather than being entirely mythical. By introducing GIS-based methods and the supplemental use of generative AI, this study represents both a pilot project and an attempt to advance the digital transformation (DX) of ancient historical studies in Japan.

Abstract: Democratic systems rest on institutional counterbalances capable of limiting authority concentration. Historical transitions toward dictatorship often emerge not through abrupt institutional destruction, but progressive weakening of stabilizing mechanisms like parliamentary oversight, judicial autonomy, political pluralism, decentralized governance. Adolf Hitler’s power consolidation following the Weimar Republic’s collapse provides a historical example in which democratic counterbalances lost corrective capacity under economic crisis, institutional fragility, coordinated mass mobilization, etc. While the historical causes of authoritarian transitions have been extensively studied, the dynamics governing the failure of democratic stabilizing mechanisms is less characterized. We introduce a dynamical systems framework aimed at identifying early-warning signals associated with democratic destabilization and executive power concentration. We represented democratic governance as a multidimensional attractor stabilized by negative feedback mechanisms generated by institutional independence, distributed authority, informational plurality, constitutional constraints. Using historical data from Germany between 1928 and 1934, we built a composite systemic stress index integrating economic instability, war trauma, ideological vulnerability, institutional fragility, political polarization and Nazi mobilization. Simulations based on nonlinear response functions and state-space trajectories showed threshold-like transitions in which progressive stress accumulation was followed by accelerated concentration of political authority, once stabilizing feedbacks became insufficient. Democratic collapse could be interpreted as a loss of systemic resilience associated with attractor deformation and feedback amplification. Potential applications of nonlinear approaches include comparative analysis of institutional fragility, quantitative assessment of democratic resilience and development of early-warning frameworks for detecting conditions associated with excessive concentration of political power in contemporary political systems.

Abstract: This article argues that the fragmentation of International Relations (IR) theory is not only a problem of competing schools, but a deeper ontological dispute over social totality. Realism, liberal institutionalism, constructivism, critical theory, post-structuralism, Global IR, and decolonial approaches each assume a different image of world order and of the human subject. Through conceptual genealogy and critical reconstruction, the article revisits Kant, Hegel, Marx, Lukács, Dussel, Quijano, Mariátegui, Zavaleta Mercado, Wynter, Said, Glissant, Wallerstein, and postcolonial IR. It proposes heterogeneous relational totality as a way beyond both closed systemic determinism and pure fragmentation. This framework rethinks power, agency, temporality, recognition, and emancipation through coloniality, planetary interdependence, and relational human existence.

Abstract: Social media platforms and user-generated content (UGC) have become central to how travelers discover and evaluate cultural destinations. Yet lesser-known second-tier heritage sites remain substantially underrepresented in digital tourism research. This study investigates how Chinese tourists perceive and engage with the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of Lamphun, Thailand, through UGC collected from three major Chinese social media platforms (WeChat, Douyin, and Rednote) spanning the period from 2019 to 2023. A total of 642 relevant posts were analyzed using a mixed-methods analytical framework comprising VADER-based sentiment analysis, machine learning classification of tourism intention, and TF-IDF-driven thematic clustering. Results indicate an overall predominance of positive sentiment, particularly toward social rituals, festive events, and traditional craftsmanship, with positive sentiment emerging as the strongest predictor of travel intention. Digital engagement metrics, notably likes and favorites, further amplified the impact of intention-bearing content, while thematic clustering revealed four distinct experiential dimensions, with festival and ritual-centered narratives generating the highest sentiment and tourism intention scores. These findings demonstrate the strategic value of integrating advanced UGC analytics into destination marketing frameworks, offering actionable insights for promoting underrepresented cultural heritage destinations within the increasingly competitive global digital tourism landscape.

Abstract: The functioning of complex natural structures, such as living systems, still lacks a generally accepted theoretical basis with respective empirical experimental verification for decades. We propose a class of experiments to test whether such systems could be subject to an unknown ordering principle that cannot be captured by known physical laws. We hypothesise that the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle enables ordering phenomena in nearly chaotic systems in the sense of a strong emergence principle, which would not be expected when they are modelled conventionally, as several authors have already formulated in various forms. To account for the harsh conditions prevailing in living systems that may preclude fragile macroscopic quantum coherence, our hypothesis does not require such coherence at all, contrary to earlier related proposals. To test this hypothesis, two virtually identical and sufficiently complex experimental setups should be compared. One setup will operate with deterministic pseudo-random number generators at key sensitive points, while the other one will use quantum-based physical random-number generators, the two setups being otherwise identical. Existing artificial neural networks are proposed as possible test objects, and their performance under identical training conditions can be used as a quantitative benchmark. As this working hypothesis extends far beyond artificial networks, a successful outcome of such an experiment could have significant implications for many other branches of science.

Abstract: In the philosophy of language, Frege’s (1892) distinction between sense and reference provides a foundational framework for identity statements. Geach’s (1967) relative identity breaks out of the framework of absolute identity and opens another perspective for us. Putnam’s (1975) “Twin Earth” thought experiment, with its striking insight, pushes externalism to the extreme, successfully challenging the internalist model of meaning and setting the basic agenda for decades of subsequent debate on the problem of reference determination. However, despite the inspirational value of these groundbreaking works, a noteworthy phenomenon is that the debates they triggered—such as discussions around core cases like the Ship of Theseus and identical particles—seem to have reached a certain impasse. This paper argues that this impasse may not stem from the depth of the problems themselves, but precisely from a deep, unexamined presupposition shared by these otherwise highly persuasive theories: namely, that there exists a single, decisive category (whether microscopic physical structure or historical causality) capable of once and for all answering the question of identity. Instead of continuing to seek a better single answer under this presupposition, a more productive approach may be to reflect on the presupposition itself. To this end, we attempt to analyze the problem from a different angle. Interestingly, this angle shows that the aforementioned seemingly opposed excellent theories can actually all be understood as special cases of this theory under different categories; the difficulties they encounter become inevitable precisely when they attempt to make assertions across categories. Therefore, this paper is not intended to negate previous work, but to clarify the valid scope of its application, thereby providing a new path to resolve a series of philosophical difficulties arising from category mistakes.

Abstract: The El Duende ‘one-canvas’ model was developed as an arts-based practice for supervision in art therapy training. Responding to changes in institutional teaching structures, this case review reflects on its use in experiential training groups on one UK-based course, with the aim of developing understanding and theoretical insights that may inform future teaching practice. Eight training group facilitators retrospectively reviewed their experience of the model as applied in five experiential training groups over a three-month period. Data were analysed thematically through an iterative, collaborative, and reflexive process and four core themes were identified. Results are discussed with links made to Donald Winnicott’s ideas of creative destructiveness, use of the object, transitional space, and the holding environment. While limited in scope, results indicate that, through sustained cycles of repetition and return, the ‘one-canvas’ model served to hold intense transformational processes within a condensed timeframe, offering trainees a valuable experiential learning experience. The study builds on established research in the field, expanding previous applications of the model including theoretical understanding, and supporting innovation and reflection in art therapy education. Future research may consider further adaptations to the model, student perspectives, and its influence on personal and professional development.

Abstract: This chapter examines the ontological assumptions, epistemological challenges, and ethical implications involved in using Agentic AI to assist, guide, or potentially replace human agents in the making of moral and legal decisions. It argues that different metaphysical assumptions regarding the ontology of ethics, justice, cognition, and AI decisively shape the framework within which such systems are evaluated. In this respect, the analysis distinguishes between two different levels of severity in the moral issues raised, corresponding to two distinct levels of AI autonomy: first, AI systems operating as advisory systems, with limited autonomy; and secondly, AI systems operating as regulatory systems, with full autonomy, that is, as entities entrusted with final decision-making authority. The text adopts a critical perspective on the use of Agentic AI in contexts of moral and legal judgement, highlighting both the conceptual fragility and the epistemological challenges that accompany proposals for such applications. At the same time, it considers the conditions under which such systems could genuinely contribute to human flourishing. Particular attention is given to the risk that ostensibly advisory systems may, in practice, become tacitly regulatory, especially under the pressure of widespread assumptions concerning AI objectivity and effectiveness. The chapter’s structure follows an algorithmic logic, in which a series of key questions serve as branching yes/no nodes, each possible answer leading to a distinct line of philosophical analysis.

Abstract: This study examines the north-western access corridor to Žilina through the Kysuca valley (the Kysucká brána area) and the Budatín crossing during the revolutionary years 1848–1849. Using local archival excerpts, a regional chronicle manuscript and a cartographic reading of historical and present-day topography, we reconstruct the probable road alignment between Brodno, Budatín and the bridgehead towards Žilina and identify its recurrent military use by Imperial, Hungarian and Russian forces. The paper argues that the corridor’s strategic value stemmed from a combination of terrain constraints (narrow valley and floodplain), bridge dependence and the connectivity of the Jablunkov Pass trade route. We provide a chronology of troop movements in 1848–1849 and discuss source limitations, including internal inconsistencies in local narratives that require verification against primary military records. The article contributes a microhistorical case study to military geography of Upper Hungary and highlights the analytical potential of regional sources when integrated with critical source evaluation.

Abstract: The sustainability-focused issues of the built environment require a change in architectural education not to form-based design methods but to adaptive, systems-based, and performance-oriented thinking. The paper explores a unified pedagogical model that incorporates biomimicry, parametric thinking, and modular design in improving sustainable design learning in architectural studios. The study adopts a qualitative case study method to investigate Architectural Design Studio 4 at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK), where third-year architecture students undertake a discovery-based design process that takes three sequential stages. The students explored biological systems to first identify transferable principles, then implemented the principles in parametric modules with computational software like Dynamo and Revit and then reused these systems to create high-rise architecture. The results suggest that biomimicry combined with parametric workflows helps to achieve optimization but not maximization, which allows students to come up with flexible, efficient, and reusable design systems. The modular design approaches were essential in dealing with the architectural complexity, especially in the high-rise application and parametric tools enabled exploration of many variations and informed decisions based on the performance. The undisclosed final design goal promoted critical thinking, conceptualization, and problem-solving. The research provides the literature of architectural education with empirical evidence as it illustrates how an integrated process-based approach can improve the knowledge of sustainability, system logic, and adaptability in students. The study finds that integrating biomimicry and parametric design in modular and discovery-oriented studios is a sound pedagogical approach to equip future architects to deal with modern environmental and technological demands.

Abstract: The issue of single-use plastic (SUP) waste is a recent sustainability challenge in developing and fragile regions with varying capacities for waste management, enforcement, and regional governance. This paper examines the regulation of SUPs in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states as an example of regional environmental governance in contexts of weak institutions. The paper provides a structured qualitative legal analysis of formally enacted legislative and policy measures. It assesses the extent to which national (and some subnational) legal responses comply with key principles of international environmental law, including prevention, the polluter-pays principle, and cooperation. The findings show that the legal responses to SUPs in IGAD are developing, but differ in scope, legal form, consistency, and effectiveness. Some countries employ direct bans, while others regulate plastics through their general environmental and waste management legislation. Prevention measures are prominent, but responsibility management measures (such as extended producer responsibility) are in their infancy, with Kenya, and to a lesser extent Uganda, showing more integrated systems. The paper links the regulation of SUPs to sustainable consumption and production, climate change, marine protection, effective institutions and partnerships, and informs discussions about SDGs 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17. The paper concludes that the most pragmatic way forward for IGAD is progressive regional harmonization, with enhanced common standards, monitoring, producer responsibility, and transboundary cooperation, rather than immediate legal convergence.