Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030041
Authors: Amilie Dorval Sonia Hélie Marie-Andrée Poirier
Family relationships are a distinctive feature of kinship-care placements, but very few studies have examined how the dynamics of these relationships affect the placement experience. This article does explore these dynamics and identifies some possible patterns, as experienced and reported by parents of children placed in kinship care. The findings presented here come from a qualitative study employing a life-story methodology, in which nine parents were interviewed on two occasions each. All of them had experienced the permanent placement of at least one of their children with a member of their extended family, under the direction of a government child-protection agency. Drawing from significant themes in parental narratives, particularly that of relationships, we analyzed and delineated three distinct profiles. In the first profile, a family solidarity was present between the parents and the kinship caregivers before the placement and was maintained during the placement. In the second, the parents struggled to keep their place in their children’s lives, thus experiencing conflicts both with the kinship caregivers and with the child-protection agency. In the third profile, the dynamics of the current relationship between both biological parents influenced the other family relationships of the parent who was interviewed.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030040
Authors: Rita Alcaire Ana Marta M. Flores Eduardo Antunes
In the dynamic landscape of online interactions, this article explores the use of digital diaries to unravel the intricacy of Portugal young adults’ experiences within the realm of apps and their connection to gender dynamics. By designing a digital participatory research method, we were able to reflect on the participants’ experiences in maintaining the requested diaries, scrutinize the major themes in the narratives generated through this approach, and examine how participants interacted with the prompts sent to them. Therefore, we delved into how participants both challenged and (re)negotiated these solicitations and how their agency led to an untapped reservoir of insights for the project in ways that went beyond words. There were visual and non-verbal elements that brought insights into young adults’ interactions with mobile applications, offering a comprehensive exploration of four key themes: mobile apps as part of young adults’ routines, between performance and authenticity, making the diaries their own, and elaborating on feelings. We also explored diary methods at the convergence of various disciplines and their high potential for contributing to topics related to gender, mental health, productivity, relationships, online identity management, apps in everyday life, intimacy, and more in creative ways.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030039
Authors: André Hajek Tadanori Imai Larissa Zwar Hans-Helmut König
Background: The Japanese concept of “ikigai” embodies the feeling of having a meaningful purpose in life. It is associated with several positive outcomes. This study aimed to translate and validate the German version of the Ikigai-9 scale (Ikigai-9-G)—and ikigai scores for certain groups of interest were presented. Methods: Data were taken from a quota sample of the German adult population aged 18 to 74 years (n = 5000; representative in terms of age, sex, and state). Data were collected in August/September 2023. The translation process was conducted in accordance with the existing guidelines. Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha; McDonald’s omega) was assessed. Moreover, we evaluated the structure’s soundness using confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity and examined concurrent validity by exploring pairwise correlations between the Ikigai-9-G with life satisfaction, happiness, health-related quality of life, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Additionally, we presented ikigai scores for specific sociodemographic groups of interest. Results: Cronbach’s alpha for the Ikigai-9-G equaled 0.88. The results of confirmatory factor analysis supported the original three-factor model as initially proposed. A higher sense of ikigai was associated with less depressive symptoms (r = −0.43, p < 0.001), less anxiety symptoms (r = −0.39, p < 0.001), higher health-related quality of life (r = 0.42, p < 0.001), higher happiness levels (r = 0.62, p < 0.001), and higher satisfaction with life levels (r = 0.57, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The Ikigai-9 scale is a psychometrically sound tool offering the possibility for assessing ikigai among German speakers. Additional translation and validation studies are required to facilitate comparisons across different countries.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030038
Authors: Imani Careese Johnson Solomon Hadi Achulo Kanisha Coleman Brevard David Ansong
Children placed with kinship foster parents can experience less disruption and stronger family ties than children in non-kinship placements. However, financial hardship can restrict kinship caregivers from taking in relatives’ children. This study investigated (1) kinship caregivers’ financial standing compared to a national subsample of caregivers and (2) whether certain factors moderate the likelihood that a kinship caregiver will be able to provide care for additional non-relative children without additional financial assistance from the Department of Social Services (DSS). This study utilized primary data from 345 relatives across North Carolina and nationally representative secondary data on 6394 individuals’ financial circumstances. One-sample t-tests and chi-square goodness-of-fit tests revealed that caregivers who participated in our study generally fared better financially than caregivers at the national level. Model-based recursive partitioning results showed that if an additional child is placed in the home, the caregiver’s perceived capacity to provide care without extra DSS support decreased by approximately 19%, with a greater decrease (35%) among a subgroup of caregivers with low financial well-being status. The heterogeneity in caregivers’ experiences, capacities, and financial needs buttresses the need for nuanced interventions and programs targeting these caregivers, enabling them to provide more stable care for children placed in their homes.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030037
Authors: Calvin Proffit Ben Feldmeyer
Background: This study explores how arrests changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across race. Daily life changed for everyone across the country with the onset of the pandemic, and early works have shown that crime changed in this period. Method: Official arrest data were pulled from the Indiana State Police database for several violent and property crimes covering 26 counties. Data were gathered from 2017 to 2021 for a comparison of pre-COVID-19 versus after the onset of COVID-19 (2020–2021). An OLS regression was run to assess differences in these patterns of arrests across Black and White populations. Results: This analysis finds that Black homicide, White homicide, and total Black violent crime arrests were significantly related to COVID-19 measures after controlling for other variables. The COVID-19 measures indicate that these crimes saw an increase in arrest after the onset of the pandemic and that these effects may not have been identical across race. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was linked to crime across race in the state of Indiana. Moving forward, it is important to uncover how crime changed across race in other locales and exactly what mechanisms may have driven these changes.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030036
Authors: Eun Koh Laura Daughtery Yongwon Lee Jude Ozughen
Informal kinship care, an arrangement that is made without the involvement of a child welfare agency or a court, makes up the majority of kinship arrangements in the United States. However, the current literature on informal kinship care is very limited. In response, this study explored informal kinship caregivers’ parenting experiences, comparing those of grandparents and other relatives. Anonymous survey responses from 146 informal kinship caregivers (114 grandparents and 32 other relatives) were analyzed. This study found similarities and differences between grandparents and other relatives. Compared to other relatives, grandparents were significantly older and less likely to be married. Over 60% of the caregivers, both grandparents and other relatives, had an annual household income of USD 50,000 or less but did not receive any governmental benefits. Furthermore, other relatives accessed and utilized community resources at significantly lower rates. This study observed significant challenges of informal kinship families, including financial difficulties and child mental health/behavioral issues. At the same time, it noted their strengths and resilience, with most participants reporting a positive perception of their caregiving experience. Programs and services for informal kinship families should reflect their unique experiences, building upon their strengths and resilience.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030035
Authors: Philip Welding
This article explores the incongruous results of creativity and risk-taking within art practice and everyday life as encountered through the photographic image. The impetus for this study was a humorous experience that took place during health and safety training that raised questions about the role of humour within everyday life. Research was conducted into two forms of visual media, including pamphlets and guides from the British Safety Council (BSC) archives and viral images that demonstrate accidents (tagged with an ‘epic fail’ hashtag). This led to a practice-based approach to research involving the production of photographic works for an exhibition that tested the role of risk-taking and improvisation within the creative process. This article uses humour theory including superiority, incongruity and relief theory in relation to Louise Peacock’s model for the analysis of slapstick, to analyse these different types of photographs and draws comparisons between the risk-taking creative behaviours of both employees and artists. These creative approaches are considered in relation to Michel de Certeau’s notion of tactics within everyday life. Ordinary thinking and improvisational tactics are present within both art and work, and improvisation heightens the potential for risk-taking. This may lead to incongruities represented through a photograph which can impact the viewer’s engagement through humour, fascination or self-reflexivity. It is proposed that the viewer response to images containing risk is made up of a balance between an embodied understanding of the dangers and an awareness of the artifice, which can shift depending on the conditions of the photograph’s production and display. The peculiarities of the photograph are seen as conducive to a humour response because of the photograph’s ambiguous relationship with the reality that it represents.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030034
Authors: Naomi Trott Monica E. Mulrennan
Indigenous people in northern Canada have relied on sustained and safe access to traditional foods for millennia. Today, however, they experience higher rates of food insecurity than non-Indigenous people or Indigenous people living in urban settings. Changing socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the Canadian north have altered traditional food acquisition and consumption patterns, with implications for health and wellbeing, and cultural continuity. To assess the breadth and depth of scholarship on the sociocultural role of traditional foods in northern Indigenous food security, we conducted a scoping review of online peer-reviewed articles. The 22 articles selected and screened for comprehensive review affirmed that traditional foods remain vital and central to food security for northern Indigenous populations. However, our review brings to light a recurring tendency in these studies to disregard or inadequately consider the complex sociocultural dimensions of traditional foods, such as the critical role of food processing, cooking, and sharing in supporting Indigenous food security. To address this gap and ensure food security is aligned with Indigenous-defined needs and priorities, community-led research is needed, grounded in Indigenous knowledge that promotes access to traditional foods and affirms Indigenous food sovereignty.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030033
Authors: Dan Norton Frances-Ann Norton Stella Veciana
This article explores the implementation of Connected Art Practice in diverse learning environments, serving as an immersive entry point for students and researchers to develop collaborative transdisciplinary skills. This innovative approach integrates audio, educational, and sustainability research, employing sound-interaction methods applied to tangible objects. Participants engage in exploring the interplay between objects representing interests or values, fostering the creation of a visual and linguistic network of interconnectedness. Inspired by artistic research, particularly Dérive, the practice provides experiences of connectedness to others and the environment, intertwined with reflections and discussions that foster a community of inquiry. This community collaboratively designs shared practices or projects, encouraging a holistic approach to transformative learning, addressing heterogeneity, complexity, authenticity, critical awareness, and emotional connectedness. All three case studies utilized qualitative analysis in artistic and academic settings. Datasets were collected in case study two from group discussion, participant observation, press releases and documentary photographs. In case studies one and three, audio–visual recordings, participant observation, field notes, and photo-documentation were collected. This study demonstrates that “Connected Art Practice” enhances competences in artistic expression, communication, and collaboration across disciplinary, social, and cultural boundaries. Specifically, it contributes to creative reinvention, personal sharing, self-reflection, and the capacity to co-design diverse projects. The paper concludes by discussing findings and pointing out the essential qualities of Connected Art, providing insights and resources for educational and research institutions seeking to foster transdisciplinary engagement and transformative learning in their curricular activities.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030032
Authors: Abbas Jong
An emerging disparity within contemporary social science highlights a disconnection between the world in the process of metamorphosing and cosmopolitanization and the knowledge of the social world that is still trapped in the cognitive assumptions of modern episteme, which provided the conditions for the emergence of modern social sciences a century ago. This divide inhibits the efficacy of social analysis in comprehending and elucidating contemporary phenomena. This article advocates for a shift in the ontology of social theory and science towards the cosmopolitanization of the world, characterized by the prioritization of indeterminacy and fluidity in the construction of social phenomena. It investigates the epistemological implications and prerequisites of this ontological transformation, favoring a post-foundationalist approach as the most suitable epistemological framework. In response to the challenges posed by the uncertainty and indeterminacy of cosmopolitanization, after reviewing some of the existing theoretical efforts to address and provide alternatives to this challenge, the article proposes the examination of social configurations as the most fitting subjects for study. This approach necessitates the suspension of conventional, given, regulated categories, and trans-historical theories. It underscores the importance of recognizing configurations as incomplete, contingent units shaped within specific historical contexts and moments. The fluidity, relationality, and indeterminacy of configurations situated between the universal and the singular make them suitable for analysis at the level of particular. After elaborating on the most important features of social configurations, finally, by employing the proposed theoretical framework, this article aims to investigate its effectiveness in analyzing the process of identity construction among Iranian youth in Tehran in the context of the cosmopolitanization of reality, particularly in the face of the Islamist regime of Iran’s official politics of identity. Through a review and revision of selected empirical studies on youth identity construction in the consumer spaces of Tehran, based on the idea of social configurations within the framework of cosmopolitanization, it is argued that the genuine understanding of identity politics in contemporary Iran is not rooted in conventional analytical norms and categories but rather in a comprehensible conceptual apparatus characterized by fluidity and indeterminacy, capable of effectively making sense of the conflict between the politics of determinacy and indeterminacy in Iranian everyday life.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14030031
Authors: Lana Sirri
This article explores the intricate landscape of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, an authoritarian state within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC), where the pursuit of modernization strategically utilizes women’s issues as symbols of national identity and markers of progress. The article focuses on the transformative potential of academic activism, exemplified by the work of Hatoon Ajwad al-Fassi, in countering oppression against women. It demonstrates how women navigate the realms of academia and activism to reshape gender dynamics and shape their nation’s modernization trajectory. By emphasizing the critical intersection between academic inquiry and activism, this article dispels the misconception that academia and activism are mutually exclusive. In contexts such as Saudi Arabia, where women’s rights face suppression, this intersection emerges as imperative for informed research and frontline advocacy, effectively addressing state-sponsored violence. Furthermore, this article critically evaluates the persistent challenge of feminist neo-Orientalist scholarship, which often distorts the depiction of Saudi women’s experiences. It offers a contribution to a nuanced understanding of women’s theorization that includes the ethico-political context within which women operate.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020030
Authors: Anastasia Todd
This article explores how disabled girl handlers crip girlhood on service dog tok, the emergent subculture on TikTok comprised of disabled handlers who upload and post videos about their everyday life in partnership with a service dog. Looking at the TikTok accounts and self-representational practices of three disabled girl handlers—Ava of @avaandcheddar, Claire of @rosie.the.sd, and Lexy of @muslimservicedogmom28—this article traces how their videos evince an audio–visual representation of interspecies intimacy, a becoming with, that complicates the familiar story of the disabled girl handler/service dog dyad that one might see or scroll past online—one of rehabilitative exceptionalism, disability disavowal, and chrononormative understandings of girlhood. On service dog tok, Ava, Claire, Lexy, and their service dogs broadcast the quotidian and move against a service dog sentimentalism that seeks to depoliticize disability and the relationship between disabled handlers and their service dogs. Their videos produce and circulate a nuanced understanding of interdependence, care, and ableism forged via the mutual entanglement with their service dogs. Ultimately, this article argues that disabled girl handlers on service dog tok upend what we think we know about disabled girls and girlhoods, recasting the meanings ascribed to their bodyminds, experiences, and their relationships with their service dogs in their own terms.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020029
Authors: Patricia C. Rodda Heather Smith-Cannoy
For years, survivors of sex trafficking, people compelled by force or circumstance to engage in sex acts, were often wrongly convicted of prostitution and many collateral crimes in the United States. These convictions became a permanent part of survivors’ criminal records, inhibiting their ability to satisfy necessities for a dignified life—finding work and a place to live, or going to school. Since 2010, forty-five state legislatures across the US have sought to solve this problem by passing vacatur laws. These laws allow the survivors of sex trafficking a means to erase certain charges and convictions from their records. The American movement to support the human rights of sex trafficking victims is part of a larger, global non-criminalization movement to support survivors’ human rights. This article surveys the recent and robust diffusion of American vacatur laws, situates them amidst the larger, global non-criminalization movement, and highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of the current US vacatur laws with an eye toward closing the rights gap for sex trafficking survivors. We argue that extant vacatur legislation should be expanded to include all crimes traffickers compel victims to commit, should incorporate trauma-informed means for establishing victimhood, and should be passed at the federal level to ensure complete and uniform protection.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020028
Authors: Åse Walle Mørkve Jackline Sitienei Graziella Van den Bergh
Non-governmental organizations (national and international) are important actors in addressing health issues in Kenya. Sandflea/jigger infections (tungiasis) are a public health challenge that severely affect children, older adults, and other vulnerable people in poor communities worldwide. In Kenya, NGOs have been involved in sandflea eradication for more than twenty years. Without treatment, the flea may cause debilitating infections and sores, resulting in difficulties with walking and grasping, as well as social harassment. This paper aims to shed light on health workers’ and volunteers’ perceptions of the government and civil society’s role in fighting jigger infections. Data were collected through a qualitative case study design, with a three-month fieldwork including participation in mobile jigger removal programs, 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews, informal talks, and observations, in five villages in Bungoma County. The thematic analysis of the data resulted in three recurring themes: (1) the NGO-driven jigger program as a (fragile) resource for local communities, (2) the need for more consistent collaboration between NGOs and public health services, and (3) the local perceptions of the governments’ responsibilities in combatting the plague. The findings imply that the 10-year-old national policy guidelines on the prevention and control of jigger infestations need to be updated; this includes the coordination of the public and private actors’ roles, the incorporation of lessons learned, and the need for a multisectoral One Health approach to combat the jigger menace in the country.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020027
Authors: Jacqueline Tuchel Luisa Hente Alexander Hodeck Sarah El Beih Mohamed Zoromba
The expectations of (sports) tourists are individual and, therefore, particularly diverse. This study investigates the question to which extent expectations differ with regard to various aspects (accommodation, food, activities, meeting new people and fears) according to the destination in the home country or abroad and the travel companion. This study also investigates whether differences can be identified between the two studied countries. A total of 39 people in Egypt and 42 in Germany were asked about their individual and group expectations and fears by using the scenario technique. In small groups, the expectations of travelling with different travel companions (friends, partner and children or grandmother) and to different destinations were discussed to develop concrete wishes and goals. Results show that both the country of origin and the destination, as well as the travel companions, have an influence on expectations.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020026
Authors: Adam Gemar
This study enriches the literature on social networks and social capital by investigating how parental status potentially impacts social network diversity in adulthood. Using the 2018 iteration of the General Social Survey (GSS, n = 2348), a high quality nationally representative survey of the United States, we utilize latent class and regression analyses, finding that parental status, especially medium and cross-status occupational connections contribute to social capital in the form of network diversity. Yet, personal socio-economic factors, notably income and race, largely offset parental effects. This underscores the complexity of network composition, emphasizing the influential role of individual resources, attributes, and mobility in shaping social networks and forming bridging social capital.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020025
Authors: Elisete Diogo
Rural areas face multiple challenges. Among these are population decline and the attendant economic and social problems, namely demographic issues. Although the factors that draw immigrants to other countries are known, comprehending the factors that result in immigrants remaining in rural areas after their arrival could support informed local policies and practices. The purpose of the study is to explore the motivations that shape immigrants’ intentions to stay in Alentejo, a depopulated region in Portugal. The research questions are as follows: What motivates immigrants to remain in depopulated regions in Portugal? Furthermore, what contributions can practitioners and immigrants make to local policies and practices? Practitioners (n = 8) and non-European Union immigrants (n = 15) living in this region were interviewed between 2020 and 2021. The empirical data were analyzed using the MaxQDA software. The results indicated that the intention to remain in rural areas arises from a progressive process: this is a process that immigrants experience that motivates them to stay there long-term. The factors influencing the process include four components described throughout this work: (1) Instrumental and material motivations; (2) Emotional and social motivations; (3) Motivations based on the quality of life; and (4) Motivations based on the political dimension. The conclusions highlight the implications for policies and practices, suggesting more investment into rural regions to reverse the depopulation trend.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020024
Authors: Lorna Stabler
Despite a widespread focus on grandparents, a large proportion of kinship care in the UK is provided by older siblings. What drives older siblings to become kinship carers, and how this might differ from other kinship carers, is not well represented in academic literature. In this study, narrative interviews were carried out with thirteen adults across England, Scotland, and Wales who had experience being the main carer for their younger sibling(s) when their parents could not care for them sufficiently. The narrative method elicited holistic accounts of participants experiences of being a sibling carer, and the analysis generated three groups of narrative accounts highlighting how and why some sibling kinship care arrangements come about—with siblings wanting to bring their younger siblings back into their family; siblings trying to keep their younger siblings in their family; or older siblings stepping in to fill a gap in parenting at home. The paper draws on the narrative accounts of participants to build the groups, presenting an illustrative narrative account to represent each group. Importantly, these accounts demonstrate how becoming a kinship carer as an older sibling may, or may not, be recognised or fit into wider narratives of what becoming a kinship carer looks like. It is hoped that these accounts will prompt practitioners and policymakers to look more closely at the role of siblings when considering who is and who should be involved in deciding how to support children to remain within their family network.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020023
Authors: Ekaterina Glebova Michel Desbordes Orsolya Czegledi
The use of technology in different aspects of the sports industry is widespread across the world, affecting sports training, performance, judging, and spectating. However, the integration, deployment, and evolution of technologies in the sports industry ecosystem are still unclear and unexplained. In this paper, we aim to build and explain the conceptual model for deployment technologies in the sports ecosystem in a holistic approach. This conceptual model is based on a literature review and theoretical synthesis, coupled with 15 qualitative unstructured interviews with high-profile sport and technology experts. Then, we formulated 4 hypotheses and confirmed them using 15 qualitative unstructured interviews with technology and sports experts. The in-depth analysis of the literature and collected data let us build the “Clockwork” Model. To better visualize and explain the development of the model of deployment technologies in the sports ecosystem, based on the analysis of theoretical and empirical data, we compare the mechanism of the model with clockwork. Technology deployment is a complicated operational process and involves the continuous sequence of consecutive elements (stages), ideally functioning as a mechanism. Together, the hypotheses underscore the symbiotic relationship between traditional sports infrastructure and technological advancements, highlighting the importance of a balanced and well-functioning ecosystem for overall success and development in the sports industry. All four hypotheses were confirmed during the second set of interviews (N = 15). Furthermore, their synthesis brought us to build and refine the “Clockwork” conceptual model, which explains, articulates, and visually demonstrates the process of how technology innovations appear and evolve in the sports ecosystem; in other words, the continuous and cyclic process of technology implementation and deployment.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020022
Authors: Rocío Elizabeth Duarte Ayala Antonio Palacios-Rodríguez Yunuen Ixchel Guzmán-Cedillo Leticia Rodríguez Segura
Research competencies are considered essential in fields such as science, academia, and technology, and this research seeks to provide a reliable tool to evaluate them. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to validate the “Cursa-T” scale through an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as through structural equations, to ensure that the data collected fit the proposed theoretical model. The study sample consists of 1104 university students, mostly female, and a questionnaire based on previous studies is used. The most important results of the research include the validation of the “Cursa-T” scale through advanced statistical methods, such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The scale is found to be reliable and valid for measuring undergraduate research and digital competencies, and the data collected fit the proposed theoretical model. The discussion of the research highlights the importance of technology, devices, software, and the use of platforms in the development of research and digital competencies in Health Sciences students. It also reflects on the role of social networks in these competencies, as they can facilitate participation in academic communities. Ultimately, the research underlines the relevance of preparing undergraduate students in health areas.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020021
Authors: Mahwish Kamran Nazia Bano Sohni Siddiqui
In Pakistan, where the subject of special/inclusive education is still taboo, there is a need to promote inclusivity in education. However, the journey begins at the grassroots level by accommodating children with disabilities in a mainstream setup at the primary level. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory research study conducted in an inclusive private primary school in Karachi, Pakistan. This case study research draws on the pedagogical practices of classroom teachers in a private primary inclusive school in Karachi where children with disabilities study alongside their peers who do not have special educational needs or disabilities. The research study aimed to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat factors that could optimize the teaching and learning process of children with special educational needs (CWSN) or children with disabilities (CWD) in the context of an inclusive school located in Karachi, Pakistan. Through an analysis of 16 semi-structured interviews and multiple classroom and field observations, teachers’ understandings of their school’s institutional values and their pedagogical practices to accommodate children with disabilities and inclusion were explored. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a SWOT–thematic qualitative method. The results of the SWOT analysis indicate how an inclusive school caters to the strengths of CWD and provides them with opportunities to sustain themselves in an educational setup.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020020
Authors: Mauro Giardiello Hernan I. Cuervo Rosa Capobianco
In this article we analyze the formation of different identity models of Italian young people experiencing mobility. The article contributes to study the link between youth mobility and identity. It does so through the development of a theoretical perspective that combines Butler’s post-structuralism with Bourdieu’s category of embodied cultural capital. Drawing on this theoretical framework, we analyze the identity formation of young Italians who emigrated to Australia in the last 10 years. The data show the emergence of an identity made up of a complex set of interconnected levels, composed of an incorporated dimension that constitutes the basis of their roots and the performative part that represents the mobile dimension subject to transformation in the course of life evolution. This interpretative lens enables the understanding of how the process of incorporation is connected to the performative and self-transformative one of identity, but also how the different combination of fixed and mobile aspects defines different profiles of identity and a different way of perceiving being Italians.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020019
Authors: Rushan Ziatdinov Madhu Sudhan Atteraya Rifkat Nabiyev
This concept paper aims to shed light on the emergence of the first to the fifth industrial revolutions, their evolution, and their transformative steps towards Society 5.0. By explaining the nuances of the different phases of industrial revolutions and their positive and negative externalities, we found that the fifth industrial revolution can be considered a transformative step for the emergence or coevolution of Society 5.0. By examining how Society 5.0 affects various aspects of human society (e.g., advances in healthcare and improved life expectancy; business, the economy, growth, and industry; education and skills; privacy and cybersecurity; smart cities; labour and the workforce), we conclude that Society 5.0 should move forward by adhering to the harmonious integration of humans and technology to address the world’s pressing problems in the future.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020018
Authors: José E. Ramos-Ruiz Minerva Aguilar-Rivero Jaime Aja-Valle Lucía Castaño-Prieto
Pets, generally, and dogs have become an essential part of families. This situation implies that people consider their dogs when planning family holidays, excluding moving to a second home. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of dog owners according to the demand for tourist establishments where they can stay with their pets. A total of 1391 dog owners’ surveys were collected and analyzed, and various covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) was developed to determine the suitability of the measurement model, the second-order factors, and the relationships between the different constructs. The main results of this research show that the motivations for traveling with the dog, the limitations this encounters, and, above all, the attachment that the family has with its pet significantly influence the choice of accommodation. The findings of this research will help hotel managers with the design of policies that meet the needs of families travelling with their dogs. The analysis of dog owners’ motivations for choosing tourist accommodation due to their attachment and the limitations for travelling allows us to obtain more accurate information.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020017
Authors: Byoung-Wook Ahn Won-Ick Song
The aim of this study was to study the effect of leisure identity, flow, satisfaction, and re-participation intention among outdoor leisure participants in South Korea. Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a tendency to more frequently participate in outdoor leisure as opposed to indoor leisure. Leisure activities bestow various benefits. Therefore, this study was used to analyze the relationships amongst leisure identity, leisure flow, leisure satisfaction, and re-participation intention among various theories about leisure. The participants in this study were collected from 369 people who were frequent participants in outdoor leisure. For the data analysis, the researchers used frequency, confirmatory analysis, reliability, correlation, and SEM. The findings were as follows: First, leisure identity had wielded an influence on leisure flow. Second, leisure identity had an influence on leisure satisfaction. Third, leisure identity had an influence on re-participation intention. Fourth, leisure flow did not have any significant influence on leisure satisfaction. Fifth, leisure flow did not have any significant influence on leisure satisfaction. And finally, leisure satisfaction had an influence on re-participation intention. In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new leisure identity has been formed, and it is believed to be a new study on leisure flow, leisure satisfaction, and re-participation intention. This study aims to provide basic data for constructing infrastructure to enable continued participation in outdoor leisure in Korea.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020016
Authors: William Paul Simmons
As forced migration increases dramatically due to such factors as climate change, rising conflict, and authoritarianism, more legal cases on human trafficking and sex work are sure to arise. To date, very few cases on these issues have been decided in international human rights tribunals, and they have been subject to extensive criticism, especially for their conflation of slavery, human trafficking, forced prostitution, and consensual sex work. This article analyzes recent jurisprudence from Europe and Africa to address this conceptual confusion and argue that tribunals must interrogate their use of the terms dignity and exploitation or risk further marginalizing already marginalized people.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020015
Authors: Agnes Kriszan Birte Nienaber
Although in recent years plenty of work was published on LEGO® Serious Play®, there are only a manageable number of publications about its applicability in a research context. Undoubtedly, LEGO® Serious Play® can be a methodological enrichment particularly for participatory research with people in vulnerable conditions. However, its utilization in research should always be well reflected and adapted to the specific research context. Based on experiences gained in the H2020 project “MIMY – EMpowerment through liquid integration of Migrant Youth in vulnerable conditions”, the following article depicts the potentials and limitations of LEGO® Serious Play® and critically assesses its value for research purposes.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020014
Authors: Ismu Rini Dwi Ari Gunawan Prayitno Fikriyah Fikriyah Dian Dinanti Fadly Usman Nabila Enggar Prasetyo Achmad Tjachja Nugraha Masamitsu Onishi
This study investigates the influence of human intellectual and social capital on the reciprocity (mutual exchange) between non-tourist populations and actors in the Kampung Coklat tourism of Plosorejo village, Indonesia. The existence of a sense of trust, mutual respect, and social networks between communities are important values in the dimension of social capital and form interchange between communities. The question in this research is whether interpersonal trust has a beneficial impact on relationship social capital and whether the existence of trust, social networks, and social norms has a beneficial impact on community reciprocity. The findings indicate that social capital is pivotal in advancing cocoa tourism, especially for individuals not directly involved in the tourism industry.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14020013
Authors: Kirsten Stevens-Wood Kate Attfield
Kirsten and Kate are scholar–practitioners studying the people with whom they interact and operate. In this empirical paper, based on their auto/ethnographic reflections, they study some often-neglected circumstances and by-products of scholar–practitioner research. They review aspects of entering research situations with which they are connected, participating in them, leaving them behind, and revisiting them. Kirsten is an ethnographer, both working with and studying intentional communities. Kate is a qualitative researcher who operates auto/ethnographically in studying Triple X unintentional communities. This article arises from discussions of Kirsten’s and Kate’s field notes, which have led them to compare and relate their convergent experiences with one another. Kirsten and Kate focus on the physical culture of the environments in which they study. Some traditional boundaries like the isolation of researchers and communities are eroding. Kirsten and Kate care about those they study and continue to hold some responsibility for the lives of people they have entered. They attempt to narrow the space between theory and practice in recognising their interconnected nature. Civic mission is gaining increased currency for researchers and may form a signpost towards the future of research.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010012
Authors: Arpita Chakraborty Virve Repo
In this article, we argue that Direct Provision in Ireland is a state approved form of gendered carcerality which creates and exacerbates conditions of gendered violence. Direct Provision is a system of processing asylum seekers in Ireland where they are temporarily provided accommodation while they wait for a decision on their refugee status claim. This article shows how carceral practices are layered and gendered, making some spaces and bodies more carceral than others. These carceralities increase the institutional burden which agglomerates in human bodies and makes the lives of an already precarious population unliveable. Through a review of the strategies adopted by the government in relation to migrants, undocumented workers and asylum seekers, this article shows how the gendered experiences of certain asylum seekers like mothers and sexual violence survivors become the political site where state approved carceral practices and gendered violence merge.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010011
Authors: Laura Guerrero Puerta
Gamification has become an increasingly used pedagogical approach in the classroom, motivating students and enhancing their educational experience. This has led to the need for specific training for teachers, as well as a need to understand how this training can be effective and how contact with gamification during teacher training can influence the attitude of pre-service teachers. Therefore, this case report has focused on examining pre-service teachers’ perceptions of gamification as a tool used in their teacher education. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data on the participants’ individual experience with gamification and their perception of future uses of this technique. The data were collected between December 2010 and February 2020 in Granada, Spain, and were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to identify general trends and findings. Pre-service teachers present a positive perception of gamification as a tool to enhance and motivate learning, highlighting the importance of prior training for its application in the right context, as well as the need to investigate other teaching approaches to improve the effectiveness of gamification. In conclusion, it should be noted that gamification is a pedagogical approach increasingly used in the classroom, so specific training is needed for the teachers responsible for carrying out this technique. This training should include research on the effectiveness of gamification, as well as the best approaches for its application, for student motivation, and for the creation of equal relationships between students.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010010
Authors: Paul Butler
Coaching is a relatively new leadership style in Irish schools, but its potential is being supported by the Department of Education and Skills since 2015. This study considers the challenges and obstacles to building a coaching culture within Irish schools, recognising that as a leadership style, it is relatively unknown. It considers school cultures and the challenges as well as the opportunities leaders face in building a coaching culture. A mixed methods study consisting of a quantitative survey (n = 48) followed by semi-structured interviews (n = 12) was the chosen method, using statistical analysis (SPSS) and thematic analysis (Nvivo) to analyse the data. The results indicate that leadership coaching facilitates reflective practice for leaders and those they manage, leading to a distribution of practice that facilitates distributed leadership, therein building leadership capacity and enhancing teacher/leader well-being. However, time, workload and creating a culture of coaching in schools are still challenges, as leadership coaching is still a new and unknown leadership concept. The findings suggest that it is vital that the support services endorse its value, that time is allocated to supporting coaching and that staff need both CPD and further education on what coaching entails in order to build a coaching culture in Irish schools.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010009
Authors: Thiago Freires Leanete Thomas Dotta Fátima Pereira
Identity building can be understood as a fluid process informed by sociocultural aspects and encompassing a strong dimension of othering. Relying on the notion of narrative identity, in this article, we explore the ways in which young people raise and discuss values (human dignity, freedom, solidarity, etc.). To do this, we draw on a set of data collected through deliberative discussions with 378 young people (11 to 20 years old) from four Southern European countries: Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Cyprus. These small group discussions confronted young people about their identification with their country and with Europe. Using thematic and descriptive analysis, we investigate the relationships established by young people with values spontaneously raised by them to build on identity formation. Our results reinforce identity as being constituted in varying forms across the European regions, with relation to values being plural. Yet, there is a strong reference to process values in the four participating countries, such as solidarity and equality, which seem to inform a narrative of an “inclusive Europe”, where community ties matter. Because some level of controversy about values is observed, however, we argue that it could constitute a valuable aspect to inform activities in the field of citizenship education.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010008
Authors: Anne Leonora Blaakilde Karen Christensen
Migrants of non-European origin tend to suffer more from diabetes, obesity and other chronic ailments compared to the native population. A group of female Turkish migrants in ill health, living in Denmark, were invited to join a session of eleven weekly meetings in natural surroundings, including yoga, bonfires and gathering fruits and herbs. The women were invited to suggest activities, and every meeting included dialogues focusing on their everyday life, interests and experiences. Two PAR researchers facilitated the meetings together with an interpreter. This article presents the methods and results of this PAR research and discusses the methodological ethnographic balance between approaching the migrants’ weaknesses in terms of their illness and migratory challenges on the one hand and, on the other, their transnational resources as workers, household keepers and kin keepers.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010007
Authors: Patricia Alonso-Ruido Iris Estévez Bibiana Regueiro Cristina Varela-Portela
The appearance of new ways of committing sexual violence via technological media and virtual spaces has produced countless situations where sexual abuse of minors may occur. This is the digital scenario surrounding the phenomenon of grooming. The present study focuses on analyzing grooming experienced by Spanish university students during childhood. The sample comprised 3293 students in higher education, 68.3% of whom were female, 30.5% were male, and 1.2% identified as non-binary. The mean age was 18.83 years (SD = 2.28). The results confirmed that sexual abuse of minors has moved towards virtual environments, indicating a prevalence of 12.2% for grooming, which was more likely to have affected women and non-binary people. In addition, student victims of grooming were more often also victims of sextortion. Consumption of pornography was also shown to be particularly important, with the results indicating that students who consumed it and started consuming it before they were 16 years old were more often victims of grooming. These findings should encourage the educational community to develop preventive actions that match the reality of online child sexual abuse. In summary, the only path towards preventing and detecting grooming is to invest in high-quality digital education and sex education from a gender perspective.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010006
Authors: Andrés Barrios-Rubio
The mass media are central to everyday life, a meeting point for citizens with the facts of the current social situation, and a space for the meaning, perception, interpretation, and construction of the notion of reality in the collective imagination. The impact of technology and communication platforms on the social fabric has opened up access to information and atomized trust and credibility in the face of the journalistic brand, an instance of crisis on the smartphone screen in which the media are relegated to the background and influencers, opinion leaders, and the protagonists of the facts themselves, in direct contact with the followers, gain relevance. The transformation configured in the users’ content diet aims to review the industry’s behavior on social networks to interpret why it is losing its place in the citizens’ consumption agenda. This research, which relied on a mixed methodology, downloaded messages from Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok profiles of two written, five audio, and two audiovisual media in a period of 91 days, and added them to what was carried out in the same period in 2019 and 2021. The corpus of the study made it possible to prove the composition of the communication, the operational tactics, and the thematic axis. The research concluded that the Colombian mass media need to innovate to establish productive routines that bet on digital native products, corresponding to the dynamics of networked consumption by an audience that concentrates all actions on screen devices.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010005
Authors: Anaïs Quiroga-Carrillo María José Ferraces Otero Mar Lorenzo Moledo
The prejudices that have traditionally been held against female delinquency and the numerical minority of women in the prison system have led to the invisibility of their needs and characteristics as well as to many situations of inequality while they are incarcerated. This study is aimed at exploring the gender discrimination perceived by women in Spanish prisons. To this end, a scale for perception of gender discrimination is applied to a sample of incarcerated women. Qualitative data from a questionnaire administered to prison professionals and field notes are also used. The results show that incarcerated women perceive the existence of several situations of discrimination related to socio-educational intervention and to the adaptation of prisons to their unique needs, especially for those housed in male prisons. Prison professionals hold similar views and express their concern about the feminization of activities. The study has implications for the prison system and policy makers, including the implementation of gender-responsive programming in women’s prisons, the development of periodic assessments of the experiences faced by incarcerated women, and the training of prison staff.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010004
Authors: Linda Dennehy Kevin Cahill Joseph A. Moynihan
This study explores the experiences, practices and perceptions of primary school principals currently leading autism classes in Ireland. Autism classes in mainstream primary schools are becoming increasingly common in the Irish education system. The prevalence of autism classes highlights the importance of their role in enabling autistic children to attend mainstream schools. It reflects the increasing number of autistic pupils who require these specialised placements. Primary schools serve all children. It is essential that autistic children are supported in the best way possible so they can reach their full potential. The principal has a pivotal role in all aspects of his or her school, including leading the autism classes. Given the centrality of their role, it is imperative that the principal is supported by the best practices and theory available. This study sought to give the principals time to reflect on their inclusive leadership and decipher what it meant for them in their lived experience and context. Theories of leadership through a socio-cultural lens frame the overall study. A qualitative research design was adopted using semi-structured interviews with 15 primary school principals. Analysis of the data was conducted using a reflective thematic analysis approach. Findings of the research reveal that there are particular leadership styles that align with an inclusive leadership approach. These styles are distributed leadership, transformational leadership and instructional leadership. A positive disposition towards inclusion is an important factor in the principal’s perceptions of their leadership. The idea of inclusionary leadership is borne out of the study. This term indicates that leaders striving for inclusion in their schools do not view it as a destination to be reached but rather a long-term journey they travel. This research is a pathway for further study in the field. It has implications for pupils, principals, school communities and policy makers regarding the value of the work of inclusionary leaders. All participants referred to in this paper have been given two letter pseudonyms to protect their identity.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010003
Authors: Gorka Roman Etxebarria Naiara Berasategi Sancho Nahia Idoiaga-Mondragon Idoia Legorburu Fernandez
This paper aims to analyse the individual perceptions of belonging to social networks among migrants living in northern Spain, exploring various dimensions such as perceived inclusion and life satisfaction. A quantitative analysis was employed with data collected through a survey of 373 migrants from different ethnic backgrounds. The findings indicate that (1) women have higher levels of perceived satisfaction with their life and social networks; (2) young migrants have higher levels of friendship networks; (3) the highest levels of perceived inclusion were found among Central Europeans, followed by individuals from Latin America, Asia, Africa and, finally, Eastern Europe; and (4) each social network under analysis was positively correlated with perceived inclusion and satisfaction with life. In summary, the results emphasise that a greater presence of networks is associated with higher levels of perceived inclusion and life satisfaction.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010002
Authors: Akif Tahiiev
Marja’ al-taqlid are Shia religious scholars of the highest level, something which takes decades to achieve. At present, most Shia scholars agree that women cannot be Marja’, i.e., create religious rulings for other people. But there is a space for discourse, and there are even a few scholars who disagree with the mainstream narrative. In this paper, I argue that, with time, the number of these scholars will increase, since Shia Islamic thought is ‘live’ and flexible, and adapts to the changing social conditions. The main obstacles that prevented women from reaching this level were the conservative views of some scholars and the lack of access to education. As the number of women with religious education constantly increases, the appearance of a female Marja’ will be a matter of time, but will still cause some resistance from some patriarchal members of society.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc14010001
Authors: Nektaria Palaiologou Achilleas Kostoulas
In the early years of the 21st century, humanity faced two unprecedented global challenges: the intensifying effects of climate change and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic [...]
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120262
Authors: Lucian Belascu Corina Anca Negut Zeno Dinca Cosmin Alin Botoroga Dan Gabriel Dumitrescu
Even though the literature implies that customers and banking organizations can profit from digital banking in various ways, client adoption of this service is still low, especially in emerging and developing nations. Consumers’ openness to digital services limits their willingness to adopt digital banking, especially mobile banking services. We used a quantitative research method based on a questionnaire sent during August–December 2022 to Romanian individuals and received 118 answers, which we analyzed using the logistic regression model; throughout, we determined the extent of mobile banking use, payments, and banking products needed within the population with tertiary education, as well as new developments that the shift to digitalization brings to users, with new features for existing products, cryptocurrency accounts, and fintech companies now being complementary to traditional banks. Our study presents current customer perceptions of implementing bank digitalization through mobile applications in a developing nation like Romania; here, advantages are counterbalanced by limitations and there are, undoubtedly, difficulties to be overcome in the quest for a more effective e-business framework. We determined the factors that are relevant in making people use fintech accounts using logit analysis.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120261
Authors: Vincenzo Auriemma Daniele Battista Serena Quarta
This article offers an exploration of the theoretical and methodological implications related to the concept of digital embodiment in the field of contemporary communication. It seeks to analyze a crucial intersection between the virtual and material dimensions of human experience, enabling a deeper understanding of how bodies are shaped, visualized, and experienced in the digital age. Specifically, through this conceptual lens, we examine how human bodies are engaged in continuous interaction with digital technologies, giving rise to new forms of presence and identity. Therefore, we will seek to analyze how the personalization of the body within political communication has been profoundly affected by the virtualization of human experience. Next, we will introduce a new approach, useful for studying this fusion, that can emphasize the importance of analyzing this issue using ethnography, which is useful for fully understanding the complex dynamics surrounding the personalized digital body.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120260
Authors: Juliana Crespo Lopes Bodil Liljefors Persson
This article draws upon group conversations with young people (11–19 years old) from Europe, focusing on the Nordic countries. The participants’ identity perception showed more aspects as the deliberative, non-structured conversations advanced. From initially showing limited aspects of identity as being related to geographical and temporal aspects, a broader comprehension of identities as constructed, multiple, and at times subject to negotiation and change came to the fore during the discussions. Examples given showed an awareness that people, such as older relatives, develop diverse ways of thinking and acting due to historical and cultural contexts. Understanding that there is an intersection between psychosocial, post-structural, and sociocultural explanations for how identity formation progresses, we propose pedagogical actions working with controversial issues and values, raising critical consciousness of the context. During the conversations, a majority expressed that controversial issues were not something they dealt with at school. By working with controversial issues, the content of conflicts is made visible, and the possibility for students to recognize and respect each other’s diverse identities and perceptions increases. The goal of bringing controversial issues into education and conducting good discussions in the classroom is to help students develop and assess their opinions, gain an increased understanding, and consider new perspectives on various issues.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120259
Authors: Gregor Wolbring Simerta Gill
Background: Being occupied is an important factor in human well-being and ranges from paid and unpaid work to activities of daily living. Various occupational concepts that do not contain health in the phrase such as “occupational justice” are employed to engage with the social barriers people experience in being occupied. The aim of this study was to understand better to what extent the non-health occupational concepts are used in the academic literature to discuss the social barriers disabled people face in being occupied and whether these occupational concepts are used to enrich discussions in areas that impact the reality of occupation in general such as equity/equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), science and technology governance, well-being and the impact of environmental issues. Methods: a scoping review of academic abstracts employing SCOPUS, the 70 databases of EBSCO-HOST and Web of Science was performed. Results: We found 24,104 abstracts for the 28 occupational concepts we used in general and 624 abstracts in conjunction with disability terms. Of these 28 occupational concepts, “occupational performance” was mentioned the most (in 9739 of the 24,104 and 397 of the 624 abstracts). The next concept “occupational engagement” was already present in one tenth or less. Occupational justice was present in 700 of the 24,104 and 14 of the 624 abstracts. Furthermore, within the 24,104 and 624 abstracts EDI, science and technology governance, environmental topics, and well-being measures were rarely or not mentioned. Most of the 624 abstracts originated from occupational therapy journals. Only 23 of the 624 abstracts originated from journals with “disability”, and none with “disability studies” in the title. Conclusion: Non-health occupational concepts are underutilized in discourses that focus on decreasing the social barriers to being occupied in general and in relation to disabled people, which is a missed opportunity and should be fixed.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120258
Authors: Nora Stein Janet Kursawe Denis Köhler
The Gezi Park protests in Istanbul (Türkiye) gained worldwide attention in 2013. Both men and women took part in the protests, which were heavily cracked down on by the government. The present study examined 273 Turkish women’s attitudes and motivations for taking part in the protests. The results show that the following variables had a significant impact on protest participation: lifestyle threats posed by religious values/norms and by the government; feelings of marginalization as a woman; political dissatisfaction; gender discrimination; and affiliations with feminism. Regarding the impact of attitudes on women’s political participation and discrimination, this study provides insights into the state of research on gender discrimination and feministic identity.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120257
Authors: Mohammed Almahfali Rola El-Husseini
The Swedish far-right party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), came to power in 2022 and is currently the second-largest party in the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag. While it has been propagandizing an anti-migrant discourse, another newly founded party has been producing a counter-discourse. The newly created Nyans party claims to represent migrants and minorities in Sweden. However, its discourse uses controversial issues that could potentially misrepresent those communities. Our study aimed to analyze Nyans’ Facebook posts published in the month leading up to the 2022 elections. Through our analysis process, which lasted from January to August 2023, we applied a critical discourse analysis approach to uncover the relationship between sociocultural issues and their social, political, and ideological contexts. The results reveal that Nyans’ discourse focused on opposing left-wing parties and aligned itself with the far-right. The discourse aligned with misinformation campaigns on social media when addressing sociocultural issues. These issues include the childcare law, the burning of the Qur’an, and the veil, which are pertinent to a particular perspective in the Muslim community and do not necessarily represent immigrants or minorities.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120256
Authors: Masayoshi Oka
Among a wide range of practical applications, the location quotient (LQ) has been used as an area-based measure of residential segregation by race/ethnicity in some studies. However, it does not correspond to any of the five dimensions of residential segregation. Rather, an application of LQ in demographic data analyses brings about an atypical way to quantify the population composition of areal units by race/ethnicity. To clarify misconceptions, the purpose of this study was to demonstrate the relationships between proportions, percentages, and LQs of six racial/ethnic groups in the conterminous United States (US). Since populations change over time, demographic data on race and ethnicity were obtained from the 2000, 2010, and 2020 Census through the US Census Bureau’s website. Using census tracts and counties as the units of analysis, a sequence of scatterplots and associated Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) was used to display the analytical results of census-tract- and county-based measures at three different time periods. Despite the different levels of aggregation, the relationships between proportions, percentages, and LQs of six racial/ethnic groups consistently showed perfect positive correlations at three different time periods (r = 1.00). These suggest that census-tract- and county-based measures expressed as the proportion, percentage, and LQ of a racial/ethnic group capture the same distributional pattern, but the units of measurement simply differ from one another. Hence, the study of residential segregation and its societal consequences needs to be specific to the dimension under study and to build upon the conceptual and methodological foundations established by sociologists-demographers and geographers.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120255
Authors: Walid Mahmoud Khalilia Abdallatif Abuowda Stylianos Mystakidis Maria Fragkaki
Effective international project team development and management is a crucial aspect of project management that directly influences the performance and satisfaction of team members. As reductions in travel and physical mobility are prioritized for sustainability efforts, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, it is of paramount importance to identify and share effective innovative remote, online project management practices. The purpose of this study is to address the scarcity of related research and investigate the impact of Microsoft (MS) Teams usability on team management effectiveness as mediated by intergroup relation. The population of this study includes university personnel that have participated in the Erasmus+ project Benefit, with a sample size of 52 respondents. The data was analyzed using SmartPLS 4.0. The findings revealed that the usability of MS Teams had a direct, positive, and substantial influence on intergroup interactions and team performance. Further intergroup relations have a direct and significant impact on team effectiveness. The findings of the mediation study indicated that the association between MS Teams usability and team effectiveness is partially mediated by intergroup interactions.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120254
Authors: Anita Pipere Kristīne Mārtinsone
In a contemporary world facing countless multifaceted crises and challenges, science can still serve as one of the most powerful tools to deal with the ordeals of our time. However, the scientific community needs to provide space for reflection on novel ways of developing its centuries-old heritage and unlocking its potential for the benefit of the world and humanity. The purpose of this article was to deliberate on the image of contemporary science within the framework of the new philosophical paradigm of metamodernism. Following historical strands related to metamodernism and science, the authors encircled the general features and elaborated the main philosophical principles of metamodernism. The main task was to identify elements of contemporary science that conform to the philosophical principles of metamodernism. Thus, several features of science and research, such as the structure of science, scientific truth, metanarratives of science, scientific thinking, system of science, interaction of scientific disciplines, dialogue of science with society and politics, open science, digitalisation of science, etc., were interpreted through the perspective of the ontological, epistemological, axiological, and methodological principles of metamodernism. This article ends with a summary of the main points of the discussion and practical implications of the presented ideas.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120253
Authors: Dan Grabowski Jens Aagaard-Hansen Morten Hulvej Rod Bjarne Bruun Jensen
Complexity-oriented approaches built on complexity theories are not widely used in health promotion research. The field of health promotion faces significant difficulties in explaining and addressing unforeseen impacts and side effects due to the widespread tendency to implement health promotion initiatives that are considered best practices. It is important to theoretically embrace the fact that we operate in a complex world and that we, therefore, need to redefine our approaches by acknowledging the complexities involved in promoting health. In this theoretical paper, we propose a set of four complexity-oriented principles for health promotion research based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory: (1) direct transfer of health knowledge and health competencies is impossible; (2) all individuals and social entities are fundamentally different from each other; (3) the individual’s sense of health-related meaning determines what is deemed relevant; and (4) it is essential for communication to meet expectations if it is to be observed. The set of principles presented in this article can be applied to research projects intended to explore and address challenges related to complexity in health promotion settings. It can be used as a lens through which to observe health promotion practice. If health promotion research wants to address the field that we have defined for ourselves as extremely complex and unaddressed by anyone else, we need to embrace approaches that actually do this—by providing health promotion research with a formal framework appropriate to its existing main purposes and concerns.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120252
Authors: Mariano Agustin González-Chouciño Raúl Ruiz-Callado
The social transformations generated by digitization and the increasing prominence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in social relations have underscored the need to delve deeper into the analysis of digital divides to enhance our understanding of social inequalities in the digital age. Thus, sociology has delved into identifying the variables that underpin differential capacities to make productive use of digital technologies for improving living conditions, a phenomenon referred to as the third digital divide. This study delves into this issue by analyzing the digital socialization itineraries of young people. To achieve this, the technique of techno-biographical interviews was employed with 30 university students in Uruguay. Through the classification of interviews into clusters based on coding similarity, five digital socialization itineraries were identified: contextual disengagement, aspirational advancement, productive channeling, controlled development, and abusive development. By closely examining these groups, a set of variables with significant biographical impacts was identified, affecting both the capacity to harness digital technologies and the potential risks associated with their use. The findings hold relevance for guiding research in the field and for policymakers in addressing ICT education challenges during childhood and adolescence.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120251
Authors: Amaury J. Rijo Sánchez
Eradicating the mistreatment of Puerto Rican women and people that local and U.S. governments enact has been a major transformative goal for Puerto Rican feminist movement communities. The celebration of International Working Women’s Day presents optimum opportunities for organizations to celebrate and make visible the monumental achievements of Puerto Rican women and people. Similarly, they foster the opportunity to strategically protest the large-scale and harmful attacks of the United States and Puerto Rico’s (abbreviated throughout as U.S. and P.R.) governing double-bind onto minority Puerto Rican populations. Feminist activists, protesters, artists, and attendees collaborate in performances, speeches, and overall programming, resulting in dually celebratory and protest-based marches. Further, the multifaceted approach to protesting observed at the celebration of International Working Women’s Day shines light on decolonial and feminist efforts that bring about social justice and transformation. This article analyses ethnographic data collected through participant observation in one march held in Puerto Rico, as well as a small archive of news articles relating to said march. Results reflect strategic forms of organizing and protesting that exercise activists’ agency in communication with the government and state. Further, they show the demand for accountability and action in favor of minority Puerto Rican populations. Simultaneously, the results also shine a light on the synergistic character of state and government approaches to minimize the impact of activist protesting.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120250
Authors: Zina T. McGee
This research addresses behavior difficulties and maladaptive coping among African American children and adolescents, and the manner in which these outcomes differ among those with incarcerated mothers. The study also provides an in-depth analysis of the experiences of mothers during and after their incarceration. Earlier investigations suggested that mothers’ victimization and offending, including drug use, are related to children’s emotional and behavioral outcomes. Hence, this research extends an ongoing project by investigating the nature of this relationship using aggregate data on adolescent health outcomes. Generally, most research addresses parental incarceration, typically followed by negative responses of male youth. Less research has evaluated the outcomes of parents’ incarceration on African American children and adolescents specifically. This is particularly true among those with incarcerated mothers. Additionally, examinations have highlighted the role of fathers’ incarceration on negative family functioning, yet we know less about the impact of mothers’ imprisonment and re-entry on children’s behavior. Many of these mothers are single and live in poverty, and their economic situations lead to higher risks of recidivism, deleteriously affecting their children. Moreover, several of them are raising children while experiencing traumatic mental health concerns amid drug usage with minimal support or treatment. For the current project, special attention is also placed on the mothers’ experiences with contact with children, prior history of substance abuse, mental illness, treatment for drug and alcohol problems, and coping with separation from children in an attempt to reveal the subsequent, harmful impact on children’s behavioral adjustment.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120249
Authors: Qi Wu Yanfeng Xu Fei Pei Naeun Lim
Kinship care is a preferred living arrangement for children when they have to separate from their birth parents due to various reasons. Although kinship care emphasized family and cultural value of connection, kinship families haven been considered as a vulnerable population since they often face myriad and longstanding challenges on both caregivers and child levels. Previous studies have described the challenges and needs that kinship families had, but there has been a continued call for shifting the paradigm from a problem-focused approach to a strengths-focused perspective. After searching in seven research databases, this scoping review identified 25 studies that examined resilience factors that were related to kinship caregivers raising their relative’s child/ren. Both qualitative and quantitative studies were included in this review. The findings showed that the resilience factors are involved with the following five aspects: caregiver characteristics, motivation, stress coping, caregiver’s family, and support. Through summarizing and discussing the resilience factors, this review calls for attention to be paid to the strengths of kinship families. This finding encourages future social work practitioners and researchers to build resilience in kinship families so that positive outcomes for kinship families can be promoted.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120248
Authors: George Tudorie
Societies in the global North face a future of accelerated ageing. In this context, advanced technology, especially that involving artificial intelligence (AI), is often presented as a natural counterweight to stagnation and decay. While it is a reasonable expectation that AI will play important roles in such societies, the manner in which it affects the lives of older people needs to be discussed. Here I argue that older people should be able to exercise, if they so choose, a right to refuse AI-based technologies, and that this right cannot be purely negative. There is a public duty to provide minimal conditions to exercise such a right, even if majorities in the relevant societies disagree with skeptical attitudes towards technology. It is crucial to recognize that there is nothing inherently irrational or particularly selfish in refusing to embrace technologies that are commonly considered disruptive and opaque, especially when the refusers have much to lose. Some older individuals may understandably decide that they indeed stand to lose a whole world of familiar facts and experiences, competencies built in decades of effort, and autonomy in relation to technology. The current default of investigating older people’s resistance to technology as driven by fear or exaggerated emotion in general, and therefore as something to be managed and extinguished, is untenable.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120247
Authors: Sandra Chistolini Andrea Porcarelli Emilio Lastrucci
The research we present concerns the narratives of political and social identity of young adolescents sampled in Northern, Central and Southern Italy. Our qualitative analysis is based on constructivism and aims to enhance narratives by privileging the communication of meanings elaborated by the young people. Consistent with this perspective is our choice of the paradigm of pedagogical personalism, which places the human being as a ‘person’ at the center of reflection. The diverse universe of youth manifests multifaceted aspects that it is possible to bring out using interaction with deliberative, open, and non-pre-conceptual discussion. The link between semantic cores such as democracy, freedom, rights, interculturalism, and citizenship runs through the analyses of the entire research (based on the study by Ross’s work in 2019, Finding Political Identities: Young People in a Changing Europe), examined here specifically in the Italian context. The article presents some contrasting aspects of the way young people living in Europe. They harbor uncertainties and discontinuities from the universe of values inherited from previous generations. However, from the tunnel of doubt young people show that they know how to emerge by outlining the forms of a promise of social commitment containing a hope for change, defined as the design of a future in which alternatives to the current situation can be found. In the background, the theme of democracy shows as an aspiration for something still struggling to be born.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120246
Authors: Marina Mazzamuto Marco Picone
The journal retracts the article “The Commodification Dilemma: Tourism Pressure and Heritage Conservation in Barcelona” cited above [...]
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13120245
Authors: Miquel Àngel Essomba Maria Nadeu Anna Tarrés
Globally, youth satisfaction with democracy is declining—not only in absolute terms, but also relative to how older generations felt at the same stage in their lives. Young people’s democratic political identity is lower than any other age group. One can point to concrete factors to explain such declines—ranging from the growth of youth unemployment to the persistence of corruption and poverty in new democracies. Growing discontent with living conditions is taken advantage of by populist leaders. This populist rule—whether from the right or the left—has a highly negative effect on democratic political identities (especially on youth) and can lead to a significant risk of democratic erosion. Our research aims to explore the significance of youth identification with democracy, and their participation approaches as an alternative to the decline in democratic quality in Barcelona, Spain. Using quantitative data collection and analysis, in this article we present the first results of our research and suggest a path for further investigation.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110244
Authors: Marybec Griffin Jessica Jaiswal Tess Olsson Jesse Gui Christopher B. Stults Perry N. Halkitis
Background: The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to immense impacts on global community health, the public perception of healthcare, and attitudes surrounding mental health during widespread quarantine. Methods: This analysis examines the rates of depressive symptomology among a sample of LGBTQ+-identifying individuals in the United States (n = 1090). The variables examined included socio-demographic factors, the use of mental health medication, access to mental health medication, and experiences of depression symptomology. Results: The findings indicate that depressive symptoms were less severe for older adults, as they reported higher levels of minimal to moderately severe depressive symptoms. Participants who were not working and those who were using substances were less likely to report depressive symptoms. Participants who were employed full-time reported higher levels of depression compared to those who were unemployed. Conclusions: Understanding the mental health of marginalized populations such as the LGBTQ+ community is critical to providing more nuanced preventative healthcare for unique populations, as members of the LGBTQ+ community are non-monolithic and require more personalized approaches to their healthcare needs.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110243
Authors: Chloé Roegiers (Mayeux) Sawitri Saharso Evelien Tonkens Jonathan Darling
In The Netherlands, women who experience domestic violence can rely on public policies that aim to support them, such as shelters. Drawing on the lived experiences, through 10 interviews and observations, of women with different cultural backgrounds and nationalities staying in a shelter, and on 37 interviews with social workers working with these women, we observed that this support falls short for them. We argue that immigration rules, together with policies on domestic violence and housing, (unintentionally) often work in tandem with violent partners to prevent women with migration backgrounds from leaving violent relationships. The paper draws on a perspective of institutional considerations of solidarity to unpack the relations between domestic violence, cultural constraints, and public policies but looks also at the positive experiences of women of migrant backgrounds with these Dutch policies. This research indicates that there is a lack of institutional solidarity towards women, especially those arriving as marriage migrants, who have experienced domestic violence. In exploring the intersections of domestic violence and often exclusionary state policies, the paper reflects on how The Netherlands can provide more support to those women and how intersectional justice and solidarity might be expressed.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110242
Authors: Carmen Costa-Sánchez Ángel Vizoso Xosé López-García
Three years after a pandemic that demonstrated the importance of reliable health information in a news agenda dominated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we analyze the situation of health disinformation in Spain on the basis of the verifications carried out by its main fact-checking platforms. The results show that COVID-19 shared center stage with other topics in the health area. In addition, a unique agenda is evident in each situation in the study, indicating a fact-checking strategy that is differentiated according to the media outlet and type of specialization (generalist fact-checker or one specialized in health). Vaccination, nutrition, and disease treatment emerge as the most important thematic subfields. Most health hoaxes are manufactured, i.e., created from scratch, rather than being manipulated or reconfigured from real preexisting elements. The format of text and image together predominates, and new social networks (TikTok or Telegram) have appeared as platforms for the circulation of hoaxes. This indicates that providing necessary health literacy to society and giving health issues greater presence in current fact-checking agendas are strategies for combatting disinformation, which can have serious consequences, regardless of whether there is a public health crisis such as the one experienced recently.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110241
Authors: Gregor Wolbring Aspen Lillywhite
Disabled people face many problems in their lived reality, as evidenced by the content of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Disabled people are constantly engaged in activism to decrease their problems. However, disabled people cannot do all the work by themselves and need allies (who can be so-called non-disabled people or disabled people of a different background to other disabled people) given the many barriers disabled people face in being activists, given the precarious lived reality of many, and given the many problems in need of solving. At the same time, the expectations linked to being an authentic ally of disabled people pose many challenges and stressors and a danger of burnout for the ally. Therefore, the aim of this study was to better understand the academic coverage of allyship and allies in relation to disabled people in general, and specifically the coverage of challenges, stressors, and danger of burnout for allies of disabled people. To fulfill this aim, we performed a scoping review of academic abstracts and full texts employing SCOPUS, the seventy databases of the EBSCO-HOST and the Web of Science. Of the 577 abstracts, covering allies and allyship in relation to disabled people that were downloaded, 306 were false positives. Of the 271 relevant ones, the content of six abstracts suggested a deeper coverage of allyship/allies in the full texts. Within the full texts, two mentioned ally burnout and four mentioned challenges faced by allies. Among the 271 abstracts, 86 abstracts mentioned allies without indicating who the allies were, 111 abstracts mentioned specific allies with technology as an ally being mentioned second highest. Sixty-three abstracts covered specific topics of activism for allies. Furthermore, although searching abstracts for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) related phrases, terms, and policy frameworks generated sixty-three abstracts, only three abstracts mentioned disabled people. Abstracts containing science and technology governance or technology focused ethics fields terms did not generate any hits with the terms ally or allies or allyship. Searching abstracts and full texts, phrases containing ally or allies or allyship and burnout had 0 hits, ally terms with stress* generated four hits and phrases containing anti-ableism, or anti disablism, anti-disableist, anti-disablist, anti-ablist, or anti-ableist with ally terms had 0 hits. Our findings show many gaps in the coverage of allies and allyship in relation to disabled people especially around the barriers, stressors, and burnout that authentic allies of disabled people can face. These gaps should be filled given that disabled people need allies and that there are many challenges for being an authentic disabled or non-disabled ally of disabled people.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110240
Authors: Hyunju Woo Yoon Y. Cho
Central to the understanding of hate is an apprehension of the complexities of various hate-motivated social attitudes, which include Othering and the production of social, economic, and political hierarchies of domination. While hate speech is endemic both online and offline in contemporary society, Korean youths have difficulties recognizing its structural forces. The present study aims to offer an instructional model of a college-level course for identifying and countering hate in everyday life. As participants in this course, students read popular cultural texts thematizing hate, wrote critical reviews, and held group discussions to develop anti-hate critical thinking and raise awareness about online hate speech and hate-motivated social behavior. They showed significant progress in the surveys, which measured anti-hate critical thinking, as well as during the course, as they proceeded from observing and identifying hate speech to formulating and articulating proactive strategies to challenge it. This study provided an opportunity for college students to develop good citizenship in reading hate speech and representations of hate in popular cultural texts with a critical eye, and to reflect on the problem of hate in society.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110239
Authors: Sorina Corman Alin Croitoru
The article is focused on researching the hidden effects of seasonal migration in agriculture on Roma communities in Romania. The theoretical framework considers the specific nature of seasonal migration in agriculture and includes elements relevant to understanding the seasonal migration patterns of the Roma population from Romania. The research is based on a qualitative methodological design and over 120 interviews in four communities with Roma individuals and key actors at the community level (e.g., local authorities, teachers, priests, and social workers). The interviews are thematically analyzed, and the hidden costs of seasonal migration are discussed at three levels of analysis: individual, familial, and community. First and foremost, the analysis emphasizes that migration is the most significant factor of social change in the studied Roma communities, and its effects are multifaceted. The analysis reveals significant negative costs of migration in terms of health, education, employability, family, and community life. In the medium and long term, these effects decrease the positive aspects linked to the material gains from migration, making these Roma communities more vulnerable and dependent.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110238
Authors: Carolina Falcón-Linares Sara González-Yubero Marta Mauri-Medrano María Jesús Cardoso-Moreno
It is important to study the impact of social media on mental health and well-being, as most young people use social media. Research has provided evidence of the link between social media and mental health, identifying vulnerability variables, risk factors, comorbidity, and predictors of deterioration or improvement. However, there is still very little qualitative insight into young people’s experiences and perceptions of social media and its impact on their subjective well-being. This study consists of a systematic review of the literature and a narrative synthesis of scientific articles published between 2013 and 2023 and indexed in the most important scientific databases in our field of knowledge. The SALSA protocol for systematic reviews of scientific literature was followed. We worked on a final sample of 25 articles, all of which were qualitative in methodology. From the content analysis, we extracted five thematic categories that describe and explore in depth the complex impact of social networks on adolescents’ well-being. The interactions between positive and negative effects, as well as the links with protective or vulnerability factors, are presented with the aim of constructing as complete a knowledge framework as possible. The paper concludes with useful implications for educational interventions.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110237
Authors: Victoria Moreno-Gil Xavier Ramon-Vegas Ruth Rodríguez-Martínez Marcel Mauri-Ríos
In the post-COVID era, explanatory journalism is undergoing a resurgence that can be attributed to the proliferation of false content disseminated via social networks and the maturation of fact checking initiatives. Fact checkers are beginning to delve into those topics that are recurrent targets of disinformation to make complex issues accessible to the public. This study investigates the characteristics and methodologies of contemporary explanatory journalism by analysing four European verification platforms (Newtral in Spain, Les Décodeurs in France, FACTA.news in Italy and The Journal FactCheck unit in Ireland). We employed content analysis of a corpus of explainers and semi-structured interviews with the managers of these outlets. Our findings reveal that explainers encompass a wide range of topics, typically revolving around current affairs. These pieces are usually authored by fact checkers and published, with bylines, within dedicated sections that encourage audience participation. Explainers do not adhere to a fixed periodicity or length and adopt a format similar to feature articles, displaying a degree of flexibility. They leverage data provided by experts and official sources and employ visual elements to convey information clearly. The interviewed managers concur that explanatory journalism represents an invaluable tool in combatting disinformation and has a promising future ahead.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110236
Authors: Song Yang Michael Nino
Using data from the General Social Survey, we investigate whether political views increase the risk of social isolation for Black and White Americans. Our findings reveal an increase in conservative political views differently shaping social isolation patterns for Black and White Americans. For instance, changes in political views from liberal to conservative are associated with reduced risk of social isolation for White Americans, whereas a rise in conservative political views is related to increases in social isolation for Black Americans. Results also demonstrate that these patterns remain after accounting for important covariates such as gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, social class, work status, and religion. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of social relationships, race, and political polarization in the U.S.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110235
Authors: Rodica Milena Zaharia Tudor Edu Razvan Zaharia
This Special Issue, Social and Technological Interactions in e-Societies, aims to attract the interest of academics and practitioners alike by identifying, exploring, and investigating the interactions inherent in the emergence of new technologies in our societies [...]
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110234
Authors: Laila Tingvold Nina Olsvold
Over the last decade, authorities in several Western countries have stated their ambitions to increase the share of volunteers contributing alongside professionals in the future long-term care (LTC) sector, but the introduction of volunteers as co-producers of care services is sparsely investigated. This article is based on an empirical case study in Norway and investigates how co-production is translated into practice in diverse settings. Our findings demonstrate that understandings of voluntary work were fragmented. Co-production appears as a fragile partnership with an unclear understanding of the roles, expectations, and opportunities among the various parties who had different purposes/agendas and limited knowledge. To successfully provide added value in coproducing care, agents need to understand the whole picture and context, and build a common understanding of ‘why’ coproduce.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110233
Authors: Lorenzo Pedrini
This paper considers the personal commitment to ‘boxe popolare’ (people’s boxing), focusing on my scholar-practitioner status as a tool to contribute to the boxe popolare agenda by means of what I term ‘shared sociological imagination’. Through a reflexive tale on becoming a boxe popolare member, the article sheds light on the importance of overcoming the theory/practice divide. The first section of the paper draws on ‘habitus as topic and tool’—namely, the methodology I have adopted in a four-year ethnography of boxe popolare—and illustrates sociological imagination as a capacity that can be cultivated even in extremely carnal worlds by social agents who do not belong to academia. The second section broadens the reasoning, arguing that one characterising trait of being a scholar-practitioner in sport and physical culture may consist in working out agency both on an individual and a collective level. Echoing Burawoy’s perspective of ‘public sociology’, such an attempt can be seen as a potentially emancipatory strategy: it allows people with whom we research and practice to live with and through theory, embodying shared understandings in novel mundane activities.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110232
Authors: José Carlos Vázquez-Parra Paloma Suárez-Brito Patricia Esther Alonso-Galicia Arantza Echaniz-Barrondo
Human well-being is a dynamic and changing concept as it depends on personal, social, cultural, and political factors and varies over time according to individual circumstances. Therefore, it is essential to address this issue from a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach, seeking that individuals, from an early age, manage to develop skills and attitudes that allow them to achieve a balance in their lives. This article presents the results of the measurement of students’ perceived achievement of the competence of complex thinking in a subject focused on human development. Specifically, the research sought to identify whether there is a relationship between the level of critical thinking and the acquisition of skills associated with human well-being. The selection of critical thinking is based on the fact that this cognitive ability is one of the subcompetencies included in complex thinking. The sample was a group of university students from different disciplines and educational levels. Methodologically, descriptive analyses were made on the means of students’ responses to a validated instrument measuring the perceived achievement of complex thinking competency and its subcompetencies and the final evaluations of the students’ course. In conclusion, an improvement in the perception of achievement of complex thinking competency and its subcompetencies is demonstrated in the students, with critical thinking that achieved the best means, its increase being significant for the whole group and for women but not for men. In this sense, although it was not possible to demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between the development of this subcompetency and the acquisition of tools associated with well-being, data showing a possible association between these elements were obtained.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110231
Authors: Tiziana Marinaci Claudio Russo Giulia Savarese Giovanna Stornaiuolo Filomena Faiella Luna Carpinelli Marco Navarra Giuseppina Marsico Monica Mollo
To explain the low employment rates of people with disabilities (PwDs), emerging debates have revealed an unexploited potential impact of assistive technology (AT) on human talent and the inclusion process. This article provides a systematic review to critically evaluate the current trends in the literature on AT. A systematic review was performed according to the inclusion criteria of the PRISMA-S guidelines, followed by a thematic analysis identifying the main themes by which the literature on the subject is organized. Finally, the Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT) model was used to deepen the contents taken into consideration in the scientific literature and to discuss the concept of workplace inclusion and its use. Forty-one studies fully met the eligibility criteria of the systematic review. The thematic analysis produced four clusters related to the impact and characteristics of AT in the workplace. Overall, the use of the HAAT model highlighted a lack of studies on the affective and socio-cultural dimensions that characterize the use of AT in the workplace. It is concluded that the deployment of AT can and should work on multiple levels to shape the workplace experiences of PwDs.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110230
Authors: Xavier Rambla Maddalena Bartolini
In this paper, we will analyze how a few initial vocational education and training (VET) schools have elaborated wide-ranging responses to early leaving from education and training in Liguria (Italy) and Catalonia (Spain). In contrast with many members of the EU and the OECD, the prevailing institutional arrangements in these two countries hardly support disadvantaged youths to catch up with basic academic performance and find an appealing pathway between compulsory and post-compulsory education. Despite this bias of official policies, we argue that some initial VET schools manage to navigate the interface between social structure and agency and accommodate the aspirations of disadvantaged students by involving local stakeholders and shaping school time organization in a particular way.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110229
Authors: Ladan Rahbari
On the fifth of February 2022, a man gruesomely murdered his seventeen-year-old wife, Mona Heydari, in a city in a southern province of Iran. The man then shocked bystanders by strolling in public spaces while carrying his wife’s severed head. This paper focuses on the case of Mona’s killing and investigates the state, media, and online user-created reactions to the incident. The paper aims to (i) offer an in-depth exploration of himpathy with the perpetrator and (ii) investigate the role of the law and the state in the normalization and perpetuation of violence committed by men against women in the name of ‘honor.’ This paper extends the usage of the concept of himpathy (by Manne, 2017) as a cluster of biases that direct sympathy towards men who commit violence against women to the institutional and legal realms. It also draws on the traditional notion of gheirat, referring to protecting one’s ‘honor,’ and explores its role in Iranian law to show that the Iranian legal system hinges upon it, therefore legitimating misogyny and femicide.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110228
Authors: María Ángeles Olivares-García Sonia García-Segura María del Mar García-Cabrera Gemma Fernández-Caminero Belén María Martínez Romero Blanca Arcos Aguilar
The migration process for minors who migrate alone represents a complex reality, one entailing exciting life projects but which often clashes with a host society that at times responds in a way shaped by stereotypes and prejudices. In this regard, the role of public and private institutions responsible for the care and custody of these minors is of the utmost importance. This is the point of departure of this study: to explore the multicultural and inclusive practices that are implemented in the process of socio-educational support for minors who migrate alone. Taking as a reference the closest context, as a case study, and employing a qualitative methodological approach, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals from Centers for the Protection of Minors, Institutes of Compulsory Secondary Education (secondary schools), and third-sector entities involved in socio-educational intervention with minors who migrate alone in the province of Cordoba (Spain). The results show, firstly, the complexity of the process behind the socio-educational inclusion of these minors, mainly due to their backgrounds; and, furthermore, the role of the different expectations of the professionals involved with regards to this group’s educational and labor-oriented development, along with the importance of the diversity of socio-educational intervention strategies used, focused on individualized attention and with a comprehensive approach. In conclusion, the findings of this study highlight the importance of tackling the task of socio-educational care in a coordinated manner, without forgetting the cultural backgrounds and previous experiences that these minors have when they join these protection and educational systems. It is, therefore, necessary to continue to implement these inclusive practices that promote the comprehensive development of minors and facilitate their transition to adult life, as should be done with any other minor facing situations of social vulnerability.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13110227
Authors: Meredith Kiraly
Informal kinship care families in Australia are a large, hidden population. This article provides an overview of international research and policy developments regarding informal kinship care and considers their relevance to Australia. The benefit to children is identified along with the severe economic burden of care falling on caregiving families. Australian Federal and State policy settings are described in relation to the recognition and support of informal kinship care families, and an overwhelming need for better financial and social support is identified. Ways forward to improve the circumstances of these families are considered, together with areas for future research.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100226
Authors: Joana Milhazes-Cunha Luciana Oliveira
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the catalyser of one of the most prolific waves of disinformation and hate speech on social media. Amid an infodemic, special interest groups, such as the international movement of “Doctors for the Truth”, grew in influence on social media, while leveraging their status as healthcare professionals and creating true echo chambers of COVID-19 false information and misbeliefs, supported by large communities of eager followers all around the world. In this paper, we analyse the discourse of the Portuguese community on Facebook, employing computer-assisted qualitative data analysis. A dataset of 2542 textual and multimedia interactions was extracted from the community and submitted to deductive and inductive coding supported by existing theoretical models. Our investigation revealed the high frequency of negative emotions, of toxic and hateful speech, as well as the widespread diffusion of COVID-19 misbeliefs, 32 of which are of particular relevance in the national context.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100225
Authors: Cristiano Felaco Andrea Zammitti Jenny Marcionetti Anna Parola
Choosing a career is one of the most challenging for young adults, and the representations of work could influence how people make decisions and build their career paths. This qualitative study examined the career choices, representations of work and future plans of 58 Italian university students. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using a consensual qualitative research procedure. The results emphasize the centrality of environmental conditions and internal factors such as vocation and internal resources in career choice processes. Also crucial is students’ discussion of the meaning attributed to work as good for oneself and others. Finally, most students present in their narratives, clear future plans. Findings suggest themes to explore in career guidance interventions. Unpacking the influences of choices and working on the meaning attributed to work appears pivotal to career counseling interventions to orient young people toward powerfully pursuing their career choices.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100224
Authors: Huma Mursaleen Sadaf Taimur
Gender construct plays a role in activating or deactivating gender equality in society, which is an essential factor for sustainable development. An education system is a primary source of building and mainstreaming social values, especially gender constructs, and Pakistan’s education system aims to provide equal access and un-discriminatory education to both boys and girls, aligned with religious ideology. The current research evaluates the alignment between the gender construct informed by religion in the education system of Pakistan and the gender construct informed by the local religious perception. To achieve this purpose, this research captures the perceptions of local experts on gender constructs, guided by the education system and underlining religious (Islamic) ideology via semi-structured interviews. The research identifies that the obsolete interpretation of religion, aligned with the local interpretation, guides biased gender constructs through the education system. The current research has identified the leverage points to transform the current education system of Pakistan into a sustainable education system by promoting religiously acceptable gender-inclusive education.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100223
Authors: Irina Golubeva
Intercultural communication is often affected by conflicts, which are not easy to resolve, mainly due to the clash of conflict communication styles. Direct/indirect ways to approach conflicts, emotional display/control, the ability to empathize and consider perspectives of others, cultural conventions, previous experiences with conflict, cooperativeness, and many other factors determine our conflict communication styles. It is important to acknowledge, though, that these styles are learned and are not rigid. They can differ depending on the context and situation. This article reports the results of an intercultural telecollaboration project, drawing on four sources of quantitative and qualitative data, i.e., the results of assessments conducted with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, and a Conflict Styles Assessment based on the Thomas–Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, as well as students’ critical self-reflective feedback. The data were collected at a Mid-Atlantic minority-serving university from undergraduate students, who were invited to explore their conflict communication styles through a series of activities and then reflect on their experiences and the insights gained during this intercultural telecollaboration experience. As a result of this pedagogical intervention, most of the participants not only became aware of their conflict communication styles but also developed their empathy and ability to intervene to defend others who are discriminated against or attacked verbally.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100222
Authors: Yolanda Zografova Ekaterina Evtimova Dimitrova
The article examines the influence of two of the main social environments on students’ aggressive behaviours. On the one hand, attention is paid to the general socio-psychological climate in the family environment and the attitude of the parents towards the child; and on the other hand, a less frequently studied aspect related to aggressive manifestations of the children and adolescents towards the parents is addressed. The study explores how watching TV shows and movies, as well as video games, in which aggression and violence predominate, is connected to the frequency and degree of manifestation of types of aggression in adolescents. The survey was conducted at the end of 2017 among 992 students in 18 primary schools, secondary schools, and vocational schools/high schools in six different cities in different regions of Bulgaria. A structured questionnaire for the study of aggression in school was designed and was intended for students. The results of the study generally show that the verbal aggression towards parents (insulting and shouting) is mostly associated with verbal aggression towards both teachers and classmates. Regarding the influence of TV shows and movies containing aggression, it was found that students who watched movies with military, fighting and bloody scenes demonstrated more frequent manifestations of verbal aggression, but the TV contents did not significantly influence the manifestations of indirect aggression and physical aggression. However, the frequency of playing video games with aggressive content has a significant effect on all investigated forms of aggression, with the strongest effect on physical aggression. Aggression in social networks is a significant factor that affects the frequency of manifestation of various forms of aggression. Students who bully others on social networks stand out as the most aggressive (verbally, physically, and indirectly).
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100221
Authors: Claudia Vallejo Rubinstein Valeria Tonioli
This article explores linguistic and cultural identities as they emerge in ethnographic data from plurilingual children with transnational and ethnic minority backgrounds in Catalonia, Spain. The particular sociolinguistic and multicultural context where these young people currently live, characterised by the coexistence of local, national and heritage languages with unequal social status, as well as their own trajectories and experiences of socialisation, implies that they often forge complex “in-between” linguistic and cultural identities and senses of belonging. To reflect on these complexities, we analyse multimodal data from transnational- and minority-background children as they participate in an autobiographical activity aimed at promoting linguistically and culturally inclusive pedagogical approaches and participatory action research (PAR). The analysis shows that children’s identity constructions fluently intertwine elements from their “home” and “host” languages and cultures with features characteristic of child/youth popular cultures, and with adscriptions to diverse real and imagined communities. These hybrid articulations, which can be described as plurilingual and transcultural, foreground how identity is both an individual and a social process, transversed by different axes, including cultural and ethnic referents, linguistic repertoires, historic, family and personal trajectories, urban cultures and the influence of friends and peers, among others. The identification of these emergent traits in our data foregrounds both the particularities and commonalities of pupils’ identity construction, which challenges and reshapes traditional understandings of identity. Finally, this work aims to illustrate how transnational children’s complex senses of being and belonging can be recognised and supported through inclusive pedagogical proposals as the one described herein.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100220
Authors: Roberto Cibin
As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many public institutions in Europe designed policies that increased the use of ICTs with the public to provide or collect information, offer support, and perform educational activities. This process was in line with a sociotechnical imaginary where people’s lives are increasingly “smart” and enhanced through digital innovation. We provide an analysis of the implications of this imaginary during the pandemic for people belonging to vulnerable categories, to understand how these actors are considered in the digital transition process at the European level. This analysis is based on qualitative data collected in 30 European countries in the frame of an EU project aimed at understanding how COVID-19-related public policies shaped social inequalities. Building on the intersection between gender studies, science and technology studies, and media studies, this analysis aims to contribute to a more inequality-aware policy reflection on the digital transition.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100219
Authors: Bilal Aslam Ahsen Maqsoom Hina Inam Mubeen ul Basharat Fahim Ullah
This study presents a novel approach for forecasting the construction cost index (CCI) of building materials in developing countries. Such estimations are challenging due to the need for a longer time, the influence of inflation, and fluctuating project prices in developing countries. This study used three techniques—a modified Artificial Neural Network (ANN), time series, and linear regression—to predict and forecast the local building material CCI in Pakistan. The predicted CCI is based on materials, including bricks, steel, cement, sand, and gravel. In addition, the swish activation function was introduced to increase the accuracy of the associated algorithms. The results suggest that the ANN model has superior prediction results, with the lowest Mean Error (ME), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Theil’s U statistic (U-Stat) values of 0.04, 28.3, and 0.62, respectively. The time series and regression models have ME values of 0.22 and 0.3, MAE values of 30.07 and 28.3, and U-Stat values of 0.65 and 0.64, respectively. The proposed models can assist contractors, project managers, and owners through an accurately estimated cost index. Such accurate CCIs help correctly estimate project budgets based on building material prices to mitigate project risks, delays, and failures.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100218
Authors: Esperanza Meri Almudena A. Navas Enrico Mora
This paper analyses violence as a restoration of both male mandate and power in male-dominated fields, such as in the context of Vocational Educational Training specialising in Transport and Vehicle Maintenance in the Spanish city of Valencia and how women who enter it struggle against it. Our theory is based on the developments made by Judith Butler, who understands gender as a power device, and by Rita L. Segato through the concepts of male mandate and moral violence. We also analyse the resistance that is being deployed against gender normativity. To offer an account of these ideas, our research was designed on a qualitative basis following an abductive approach. We conducted eight biographical interviews, throughout the 2019–2020 academic year, with women who are linked to the automotive sector and to the VET area in question. We can state that their entering into this productive field leads to a denaturalisation of the hierarchy imposed by the male mandate and that in challenging things, it exacerbates the violent practices as a restoration of the male mandate.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100217
Authors: Kerry J. Kennedy Jan Christian Gube Miron Kumar Bhowmik
Discursive experiences can contribute to shaping lives and their identities. For minoritized youth in Hong Kong, the 2019 protest movement provided many such experiences, although very little has been heard about them. Instead, reporting has focused on the experiences of the dominant Chinese population. This paper aims to highlight the voices of minoritized youth in relation to the social movement that dominated Hong Kong in the second half of 2019. It is well recognized that identity is not fixed and that there are more likely multiple identities that transition from one to the other. Yet little is known about the influences on identity formation and the processes that underlie them. This was the issue addressed here. The paper draws on Lacan’s theory of identity in examining interviews involving minoritized youth and their engagement in Hong Kong’s 2019 protest movement. It shows how individual responses to the movement differed, how the movement challenged identities, and how these challenges were resolved.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100216
Authors: Samar Ben Romdhane Alain Babineau
Policing organizations play a vital role in increasing diversity and recruiting individuals from diverse backgrounds. However, they face the challenge of reconciling merit-based hiring with the influence of social capital, necessitating a stronger focus on equity policies. This paper delves into this intricate landscape, leveraging both personal experiences and the framework of employment equity laws. It also draws upon insights gleaned from the Sandhu case to advocate for a holistic approach that encompasses cultural and legal changes to combat the issues surrounding “otherness” within policing. Through a comprehensive exploration of these cases, this paper unravels an intricate tapestry of the challenges faced by policing organizations. It provides valuable insights into nurturing diversity, equity, and inclusion within these entities, addressing issues like othering and racial profiling. This paper underscores the vital importance of public security organizations embracing equity, diversity, and inclusion to better fulfill their mission of serving the communities they protect. By adopting these principles, organizations can improve their effectiveness and make substantial contributions to fostering a more equitable society, transcending the confines of mere reputation management.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100215
Authors: Yanfeng Xu Theresa M. Harrison Athena C. Y. Chan Ashlee A. Lewis Sue E. Levkoff Gina M. Kunz
Due to COVID-19, many schools switched to remote instruction, creating an urgency to address the technology needs of many families, including grandparent-headed families. Many grandparent-headed families (i.e., custodial grandparents) have limited access to digital devices and stable internet. Moreover, many of these grandparents lack the skills and confidence to use technology, which may affect both their grandchildren’s ability to attend school as well as their academic performance. This study investigates both the associations of grandfamilies’ access to technology and custodial grandparents’ comfort level with technology with their grandchildren’s academic attendance and performance during COVID-19. We analyzed cross-sectional survey data collected from grandparents raising grandchildren between March 2021 and February 2022 in the United States. Ordered logistic regression analyses were conducted using STATA. The key results suggested that grandfamilies’ more stable access to technology (OR = 1.54, p = 0.048) and grandparents’ high comfort level with technology (OR = 2.18, p = 0.003) during grandchildren’s remote learning were significantly associated with higher odds of grandchildren’s better school attendance. Similarly, more stable access to technology (OR = 1.53, p = 0.048) and higher comfort level with technology (OR = 1.67, p = 0.030) were significantly associated with higher odds of grandchildren’s better academic performance. The results imply the need to provide stable internet and digital devices to grandfamilies without access to these services or devices, as well as technical assistance and technical-related education workshops to custodial grandparents who are not tech-savvy.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13100214
Authors: David S. Contreras Islas George Jennings
Martial arts are concerned with continuous technical practice and refinement over a lifetime, while scholarship is ordinarily undertaken by active learners and experienced (occasionally veteran) practitioners. These martial arts scholar–practitioners tend to be positioned according to specific types, from a more distant (and sometimes critical) scholar with less combat acumen to an instructor keen to read and engage in collaborative research. This article introduces a typology of ten martial arts scholar–practitioner types: (1) Supportive Scholar; (2) Former Practitioner; (3) Practitioner on Stand-by; (4) Immersed Apprentice; (5) Budding Scholar–Practitioner; (6) Established Scholar–Practitioner; (7) Temporary Practitioner–Researcher; (8) Experimental Leader; (9) Inquisitive Teacher; and (10) Curious Practitioner. The types are examined using Capoeira, one of the most academically studied martial arts. Drawing on the Spannungsfeld—the “field of tension” between science and practice—we reveal the specific strengths and limitations of each type while illustrating the common transition between positions across a career or research project. Finally, we consider some practical solutions to mitigate the relative weaknesses and oversights of the specific types, including the ability to form teams of scholar–practitioners from different positions in academia and martial arts. We close with suggestions for empirical research to test and refine our methodological model.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090213
Authors: Anna Sorrentino Margherita Santamato Antonio Aquino
Background: Teen dating violence (TDV) is a growing issue among adolescents, leading to several negative behavioral and psychological consequences. Most studies have been carried out in North America, whereas few have been conducted in Europe and Italy. Despite the existence of some studies underlying risk factors for TDV, to the best of our knowledge, none of them have tested a comprehensive model that includes several risk factors (and their interplay) for verbal–emotional and physical TDV such as witnessing IPV, involvement in school bullying and victimization, cyberbullying and cybervictimization, deviant behaviors, and violence against teachers. Methods: A short-term longitudinal study involving 235 students aged 10–14 who filled in an online questionnaire twice. Results: The tested path analysis model showed an excellent fit to data, with a different pattern of risk factors affecting youth involvement as perpetrator and victim in physical and verbal–emotional TDV. Differential paths emerged for females and males. Conclusions: This article includes discussions on practical and policy implications for future research, stressing the need to develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of primary prevention programs addressing and managing youth involvement in violent and aggressive behaviors.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090212
Authors: Sohni Siddiqui Anja Schultze-Krumbholz
The advent of the internet has channeled more online-related tasks into our lives and they have become a pre-requisite. One of the concerns with high internet usage is the multiplication of cyber-associated risky behaviors such as cyber aggression and/or cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is an emerging issue that needs immediate attention from many stakeholders. The aim of this study is to review existing successful and emerging interventions designed to prevent cyberbullying by engaging individuals through teacher professional development and adopting a whole-school approach. The review presents the strengths and limitations of the programs and suggestions to improve existing interventions. Preparing interventions with a strong theoretical framework, integrating the application of theories in interventions, promoting proactive and reactive strategies in combination, beginning with baseline needs assessment surveys, reducing time on digital devices and the digital divide among parents and children, promoting the concepts of lead trainer, peer trainer, and hot spots, focusing on physical activity, and use of landmarks are some of the recommendations proposed by the authors. In addition to face-to-face intervention sessions, it is suggested to update existing intervention programs with games and apps and to evaluate this combination.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090211
Authors: Gregor Wolbring Maria Escobedo
Social stress can be caused by many factors. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) highlights many social stressors disabled people experience in their daily lives. How social stressors experienced by disabled people are discussed in the academic literature and what data are generated influence social-stressor related policies, education, and research. Therefore, the aim of our study was to better understand the academic coverage of social stressors experienced by disabled people. We performed a scoping review study of academic abstracts employing SCOPUS, the 70 databases of EBSCO-HOST and Web of Science, and a directed qualitative content analysis to achieve our aim. Using many different search strategies, we found few to no abstracts covering social stressors experienced by disabled people. Of the 1809 abstracts obtained using various stress-related phrases and disability terms, we found a bias towards covering disabled people as stressors for others. Seventeen abstracts mentioned social stressors experienced by disabled people. Fourteen abstracts flagged “disability” as the stressor. No abstract contained stress phrases specific to social stressors disabled people experience, such as “disablism stress*” or “ableism stress*”. Of the abstracts containing equity, diversity, and inclusion phrases and policy frameworks, only one was relevant, and none of the abstracts covering emergency and disaster discussions, stress-identifying technologies, or science and technology governance were relevant. Anxiety is one consequence of social stressors. We found no abstract that contained anxiety phrases that are specific to social stressors disabled people experience, such as “ableism anxiety”, “disablism anxiety” or “disability anxiety”. Within the 1809 abstract, only one stated that a social stressor is a cause of anxiety. Finally, of the abstracts that contained anxiety phrases linked to a changing natural environment, such as “climate anxiety”, none were relevant. Our study found many gaps in the academic literature that should be fixed and with that highlights many opportunities.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090210
Authors: Shiori Osanai Jeongsoo Yu
Declining birthrates and aging populations are progressing globally, but this trend is particularly prominent in East Asia. Japan and South Korea face SDG-related problems, such as declining birth rates, aging populations, and depopulation in rural areas due to population concentration in urban areas. In this study, “regional revitalization” was set as a keyword for solving SDG-related issues in Japan and South Korea to conduct a comparative analysis of the relevant trends and characteristics of national policies and educational approaches in Japan and South Korea through a literature review. A comparative analysis of the policies and educational approaches to regional revitalization in Japan and South Korea reveals that policies and education are closely related to regional revitalization. Japan aims to increase the permanent population of young people through creating attractive regions in each region, and South Korea aims to alleviate the labor shortage caused by the declining population with labor immigration and aims for regional revitalization via comprehensive cooperation among its own citizens, immigrants, and people with multiple cultures.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090209
Authors: Hermínia Gonçalves Jorge Ferreira
The decentralization of social functions to municipalities, also known as municipal decentralization, triggered new contexts of practice in municipal social intervention. Municipalities are now dealing with more work and a focus on working in partnerships, which calls for greater dynamism of the local social action teams. This process has pushed the social workers to practices that alternate between mediation through the construction of access to a universal standard of social rights and the development of social intervention models with specific access to certain contexts and social groups. The objective of this paper is to envision new forms of standardization of social action within the framework of municipal decentralization, combining place-based perspectives with community and structural social work. What can we learn from social workers’ perspectives on the context of social functions in order to envision forms of place-based standardization of municipal social action? We seek to analyze the professional visions of local social action systems reform, discussing new contexts of practice; new place-based functions; and their correlation with political mediation for universal and intermunicipal social rights, instrumental dimensions of concrete work, and dimensions of value attributed to practicing social work. We organized the research according to the phenomenological paradigm, mobilizing the qualitative method and the multiple-case study. Based on evidence from the discourse of all professionals involved in the study, the findings indicate that the transformations of local social action systems, associated with the processes of social functions decentralization, imply greater comprehensiveness of social intervention, the ability to work in partnerships, and new place-based approach matrices, but they also present challenges for social workers in terms of multilevel governance that may favor the standardization of access to better social well-being between municipal territories.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090208
Authors: Maria Diacon Liena Hačatrjana Victor Juc Victoria Lisnic Antonella Rocca
The school-to-work transition is one of the trickiest steps in the life cycle of an individual because when young people complete their education and enter the labor market, they have to compete to attain a job while lacking the job experience or skills required by employers. Across European countries, the school-to-work transition shows very different characteristics and durations, stemming from, among other factors, (1) the different provisions of services at the country level to help young people become oriented in the labor market, (2) different historical backgrounds, and even (3) the different capacities of education systems to provide the skills required by employers, despite the efforts to homogenize the national education systems, which started with the Bologna process. In this paper, we aim to compare various programs implemented within formal education at the macro-level in Italy, Moldova, and Latvia, three rather different countries in Europe, that have the goal of helping young people during various stages of this transition. The conclusion we can draw is that each of these countries needs to adopt a coordinated and integrated strategy of reforms aimed at (a) preventing early school drop-outs; (b) incentivizing the attainment of a university degree; (c) reforming school curricula; (d) closing the gap between education systems and labor market requirements; and (e) improving the services that help young people during the school-to-work transition.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090207
Authors: Elia Etkin
The definition and analysis of disadvantaged neighborhoods have been rethought in recent years, with the goal of trying to surpass the monolithic identification of all marginal neighborhoods and move towards an analysis of the social, urban, and national circumstances that create marginal neighborhoods in a particular country under specific historical circumstances. This paper offers a micro-historical case study that allows us to examine the social consolidation and civic engagement of a marginal urban community residing in the HaTikvah neighborhood, next to the city of Tel Aviv, during the period between the mid-1930s and the early 1950s. It argues that the residents’ identifications and actions stemmed from an intersectional marginality that was composed of their low socio-economic status, their ethnic origin as Oriental Jews, the geographic location of the neighborhood, and its lack of municipal status. Taking into consideration the circumstances of British Mandatory rule and the processes of the consolidation of the Jewish national society in Palestine as a European society, this paper unveils the struggles of the community vis à vis various institutions for the purposes of recognition, the improvement of living conditions, and, subsequently, the preservation of the fabric of life in the neighborhood.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090206
Authors: Joana Proença Becker Rui Paixão Patrícia Correia-Santos Manuel João Quartilho
Firefighters are considered a high-risk group for developing stress-related psychopathologies, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), due to repeated exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTE). Studies have indicated that PTE is also associated with the development of Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD). However, the occurrence of this condition among firefighters is an underexplored topic. This study aimed to assess the relationships between PTE and PTSD symptoms, and the relationship between PTE and SSD symptoms. Furthermore, we aimed to assess the role of SSD in the relationship between PTE and PTSD within Portuguese firefighters who battled the 2017 violent forest fires. To this end, a sample of 116 firefighters (75% male) completed self-report measures of posttraumatic symptoms, somatic symptoms, and other psychopathological symptoms. Contrary to several literature, in the present study, neither PTSD nor SSD symptoms seem to be correlated with any sociodemographic characteristics. However, the exposure to PTE is positively correlated with both PTSD and SSD symptoms. Furthermore, SSD seems to act as a mediator in the relationship between PTE and PTSD.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090205
Authors: Ingrid Kofler
Topics related to sustainable development are at the forefront of current local and global debates, involving social, economic, and political perspectives. To address these complex and interconnected challenges, it is necessary to think and act beyond disciplinary and field-specific boundaries. Participating in project work, research, experiments, and designing social transformation processes are at the core of transdisciplinary research and methods, such as Real-World Laboratories. This means that all participants are involved in co-designing, co-producing, and co-disseminating the project from the beginning. In these participatory processes, a systematic evaluation and evidence of the transdisciplinary process is often difficult to show even though it would be important to improve scalability and the transferability of the process. Using the example of the Tiny Fop Mob, a Real-World Laboratory on wheels, we wanted to understand how to evaluate transdisciplinary research thinking within the project team and demonstrate how systematic evaluation is crucial in participatory research. Findings show that there is a need to reflect on context-specific and team-oriented strategies during the planning and the beginning of the project.
]]>Societies doi: 10.3390/soc13090204
Authors: Silvia Barnová Gabriela Gabrhelová Slávka Krásna Lívia Hasajová Denis Barna
The aim of the proposed study is to present the partial results of research activities focused on vocational school teachers’ resilience realized within the grant project IGA003DTI/2022. The present study aims to examine the existence of associations between teacher resilience and years of teaching experience. The research sample consisted of 474 vocational school teachers in Slovakia. The level of their teacher resilience was measured by The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale CD-RISC-25SLOVAK. The scale measures seven dimensions—Hardiness, Coping, Adaptability/Flexibility, Meaningfulness/Purpose, Optimism, Regulation of emotion and cognition, and Self-Efficacy. The findings confirmed the existence of associations between teacher resilience and years of teaching experience as novice teachers and teachers with ten or fewer years of teaching experience achieved lower scores in the scale than their more experienced colleagues. Although we are aware of the limits of the research study given the size and composition of the sample, the findings suggest that years of teaching experience can be considered an important variable from the aspect of teacher resilience and it is important to pay increased attention especially to novice teachers’ well-being and building their resilience, e.g., by providing guidance through developing effective coping strategies. As there are a lack of available data on vocational school teachers’ resilience, the present findings have the potential to broaden the existing knowledge and have implications for further research.
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