Societies, Volume 14, Issue 6 (June 2024) – 16 articles

This study explores the opportunities and challenges of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into engineering education. Through a review of the literature and a qualitative focus group study, an assessment was made for the role of AI in personalizing learning, enhancing simulation engagement, providing real-time feedback, and preparing students for AI-integrated workplaces. The study emphasizes how AI may significantly improve educational experiences by making them more dynamic, interactive, and successful. It also draws attention to important issues, such as moral questions, algorithmic biases in AI, infrastructure constraints, the need for AI literacy training for educators, and a range of student perspectives on AI engineering education. The results support a systematic approach to AI integration, highlighting the necessity of cooperative efforts by educators, legislators, curriculum designers, and technologists in order to overcome these obstacles. The study makes the case that AI can transform engineering education by negotiating these challenges and providing students with the information and skills needed for the digital future, all the while assuring fair and moral access to technology-enhanced learning. Full article

Since 2012, twenty-four states have legalized adult-use recreational cannabis. To varying degrees, state laws allow for the production, distribution, retail sale, and on-site consumption of cannabis in licensed businesses. Accompanying cannabis, some legalization has acknowledged that black and brown communities were disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. To address this, social equity provisions have been a component of their public policies related to cannabis legalization. These provisions include measures to expunge cannabis-related criminal records and create social equity set-asides for cannabis business licenses. This paper’s research question asks if, under its current structure and implementation, recreational cannabis laws achieve social equity goals. The methods for the analysis apply content analysis to public policy documents and quantify recreational cannabis licensing outcomes. These methods were applied to a comparative analysis of social equity provisions in state and local cannabis laws applicable to large U.S. cities (2020 population > 600,000). This analysis focuses on the characteristics of set-asides for social equity licenses to sell recreational cannabis. The analysis examines the scope of social equity policies, their administration and implementation, and the characteristics of licensees. The findings from the analysis are used to identify a model policy framework and generate recommendations to strengthen social equity outcomes in recreational cannabis licensing. Full article

The aim of this study is to contribute to the debate concerning the intensity of fears in high-IQ children. Many authors have pointed out that this population presents a particular psycho-affective profile that can lead to greater anxieties and fears. One hundred and one children (normal-IQ vs. high-IQ) were subjected to an adaptation of the Fear Inventory (FSSC-R; Inventaire des peurs de l’enfant, IPE-R). The results show that fear of danger and death is significantly more intense than all other fears in children aged 5 to 12. However, the pattern of results obtained did not differ according to the cognitive abilities of the children questioned. These results are important because they challenge the preconceived ideas conveyed in the media and by many practitioners who have made giftedness their stock-in-trade. If there is indeed a difference, it may be linked not to the children’s perception of their own emotional state but rather to its behavioral manifestations, which may be more intense in high-IQ children. These results are discussed in relation to the literature, and research perspectives are proposed. Full article

Recent scholarship has highlighted the heterogeneity of second-generation Irish identities in Great Britain, yet the varieties of self-identification espoused by the English-raised children of Northern Irish parents remain almost wholly unexplored. This article redresses this neglect by examining the relationship between parentally transmitted memories of the Northern Ireland Troubles (c.1969–1998) and the forms of identity and self-understanding that such children develop during their lives in England. Drawing on original oral history testimony and using the concepts of narrative inheritance and postmemory as interpretive tools, it demonstrates the complex correlation that exists between parents’ diverse approaches to memory-sharing and their children’s negotiation of inherited conflict memory as they position themselves discursively within contemporary English society. Based on a close reading of five oral history interviews, the analysis reveals a spectrum of creative postmemory practices and identity enactments, whereby narrators agentively define themselves in relation to the meanings they attribute to inherited memories, or the dearth thereof, as they navigate their tangled transnational affinities and allegiances. The article also explores how these practices and enactments are subtly responsive to narrators’ changing relationships to their narrative inheritances as their experience and awareness of their own and their parents’ lives deepen over the life course. Full article

In view of global population ageing and of policies that support longer working lives, especially in developed countries, it is important to achieve diversity in organisations through age management. Age management is the “management of human resources, [often] with an explicit focus on the requirements of an ageing workforce.” Through age management practices, organisations will be better able to change their human resource management policies and practices towards accommodating their ageing workforce. Little is known about age management practices in Scandinavian organisations, considering the region’s high prevalence of workers beyond the age of 50 across both private and public organisations. There are indications that Scandinavian business organisations are already practicing age management for all ages, including older workers. Their age management practices include the dimensions of job recruitment, training, lifelong learning, development, and promotion. However, there is a dearth of knowledge on how the health and well-being of workers is ensured in the context of age management practices in these organisations. Given the current and future importance of age management for all organisations globally, public health and other health science professionals need to collaborate with other disciplines, such as management and sustainability science, to better understand how they can contribute to an aged and healthier workforce as well as workplace health promotion. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning age management in public and private institutions in Scandinavia through the public health lens. Full article

The media often limit religious coverage to reporting on statements, appointments, opinions, and activities, ignoring in-depth treatment and emphasizing negative news. Media, rather than helping to combat prejudice and promote understanding between communities, have contributed to fuelling intolerance towards religious communities. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the presence and treatment of religious issues. Through a combination of content analysis focused on Catalan media publications between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021, and a focus group with 12 journalists specialized in religious coverage for Catalan newspapers, this research sheds light on the prevailing trends, seeking to answer what is the space of religious content, which can include both content messages produced by religious communities that refer to their own or other faiths and/or content that discusses issues related to religions or religious groups. Occupies in the media agenda, how this content is addressed, and which are the perceptions of journalists regarding the coverage of religious issues. Moreover, we seek to unveil potential actions needed to improve it. The results of this study suggest that there is a tendency to publish limited religious content in the media, potentially shaping perceptions of religion. Furthermore, when religious topics are covered, they focus on Catholicism and Islam, marginalizing other faiths. What is more, stereotypes and misconceptions persist, which could be due to their continued priority to cover scandalous or negative events related to religion. Full article

This study is the result of the debate sessions held at the 1st International Conference on Human Rights and Territories at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, aimed at analyzing the impact and the agenda itself in the territorial and local contexts. To conduct the research, five focus groups were organized, focusing on the five elements of the agenda: People, Peace, Planet, Prosperity, and Partnerships, with the participation of over 30 international academics, followed by an analysis of the recorded speeches. The results provide a critical epistemic perspective on the 2030 Agenda and its connection with territories, concluding the difficulty of establishing human rights processes in territories from agendas that are centered from the global to the local level. Full article

Geography is a significant element of social innovation. This paper focuses on exploring differences and similarities in the characteristics and contributions towards impact of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs), a form of social innovation which provides otherwise unmet services and opportunities to people at risk of social and economic exclusion and distant from the labour market, in rural and urban areas of Ireland. To do so, we use data from 336 surveys from urban (213) and rural (123) WISEs and conduct an exploratory and spatially sensitive analysis to compare the characteristics, in terms of organisational age, legal and governance form, multiplicity of activities, revenue diversification; and contributions towards impact, in terms of geographical focus/reach, employment, volunteers, and income generation. Our analysis shows that WISEs in urban and rural areas present rather similar organisational characteristics and ways of functioning (legal structure, multiactivity, multiple sources of funding), but their contributions to socioeconomic impact differ according to their spatial location, with urban WISEs generating significantly more employment and income than their rural counterparts. Our study illustrates that socially innovative organisations are spatially sensitive, and that context influences their capacity to create sustainable employment opportunities and contribute to the local economy. Full article

Creative social enterprises are increasingly emerging in rural regions, motivated by a desire to take social responsibility through creative approaches. These enterprises integrate entrepreneurial activities with creative social attributes and are sometimes set in rural collaborative workspaces (CWSs) facilitating entrepreneurial activities. Under the frame of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs), we argue that CWSs can be seen as brokers, who (1) link resources as liaisons, (2) hold and pass resources as gatekeepers, (3) enhance resource flows as coordinators, and (4) reproduce experiences as representatives. Against this backdrop, this paper presents a case study of two creative social enterprises in a CWS with a cooperative structure in rural Upper Austria by analyzing entrepreneurial biographies about the demand and use of entrepreneurial resources. Through a comparison between before and after the emergence of the CWS, the findings suggest that the EE for creative and social entrepreneurship undergoes two different types of transformation, a radical and a gradual one. The brokerage process of the CWS enhances local resource networks’ transformation of EE and brings the transformation in terms of translocal resources and integral EE of enterprises in the CWS. Additionally, the CWS generates social impacts on the local community through social enterprises. This paper contributes to ecosystem literature by introducing an actor-centric perspective and giving new insights into social entrepreneurship and the transformative power of CWSs as brokers. Full article

This research delves into the territorial nuances of political populism, examining Portugal’s CHEGA party as a case study. Through a comprehensive analysis of survey data and correlational studies, this study reveals that discontent, manifesting in the rise of populist movements, is intricately linked to the economic decline and neglect of specific regions. The unexpected success of CHEGA is not merely a socio-economic phenomenon but a product of deeply rooted territorial dynamics. The findings underscore the importance of adopting place-sensitive development policies that address the unique challenges of overlooked territories, steering clear of traditional compensatory measures. The urgency to counteract long-term economic decline, industrial decay, and brain drain demands innovative strategies that tap into latent economic potential and provide tangible opportunities. As we confront the rise of anti-establishment voting threatening European unity, this research advocates for a paradigm shift towards place-sensitive policies to navigate the crossroads of discontent and foster a more resilient, inclusive future. Full article

Kinship caregivers encounter complex issues when interfacing with the child welfare system. Most kinship care families are not connected to child welfare. The experiences and extent of child welfare connection among older grandparents raising adolescent grandchildren are understudied. This study describes in-depth reflections from older grandparents raising adolescent grandchildren about circumstances leading to kinship care and the extent of child welfare involvement. Nineteen older grandparents raising adolescent grandchildren participated in qualitative phenomenological interviews. Eligibility criteria included identifying as a primary caregiver aged 40 or older for a grandchild 12 years or older who lived with them at least three days during the week. Respondents were primarily married (58%), white/non-Hispanic (53%), and grandmothers (84%) and had some college education or were college graduates (79%). Older grandparent caregivers described three themes: the intensive child welfare path, the influence of indirect child welfare professionals, and guardians with influence. The onset of kinship care, with or without intensive child welfare involvement, stemmed primarily from child abuse and neglect linked primarily to adolescent pregnancies and parental substance use. Child welfare and other helping professionals must recognize and problem-solve with older grandparent caregivers to meet complex stage-of-life needs in and outside of traditional child welfare settings. Full article

Most highly developed countries invest considerably in language training programmes for refugees, which are assumed to facilitate economic, social, and cultural integration. Although recent research has turned to particular patterns of host country language acquisition amongst refugees, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has hitherto remained understudied. Consequently, this article assesses changes in refugees’ uptake and outcomes of language training over the onset of the pandemic using longitudinal population data for Belgium (Flanders). Findings confirm theoretical expectations, as refugee cohorts entering the country after the onset of the pandemic exhibit lower Dutch language credentials, mostly due to lower enrolment and lower proficiency at intake for language courses. Furthermore, this study indicates that such changes are considerably weaker for highly educated and female refugees. These findings are interpreted in terms of increased vulnerability resulting from the pandemic as well as within-group diversity in potential barriers to integration in the host country. Full article

As shown by sociological studies, the Catholic Church in Italy is very active in conducting advocacy and providing political representation to immigrants. It is also highly effective in carrying out services for immigrants, as well as fairly receptive to sharing places of worship with them. However, these sociological observations have been mainly conducted at the national level rather than by exploring the life of parishes through an empirical lens. This article aims, by applying the congregations study methodology, to fill this gap by detecting faith communities as the basic social units of religious life at the city/country level. In doing that, we discuss quantitative data collected in 377 Catholic parishes in the cities of Bologna, Milan, and Brescia. The findings suggest that Catholic parishes: (i) illustrate a low proportion of immigrants in their communities; (ii) show high activity in providing services for immigrants; (iii) are not politically engaged in advocacy for foreign persons at the local level; and (iv) similarly position themselves as politically conservative and liberal while expressing commitments to immigrants. This study confirms the sociological argument regarding the solidarity approach of the Catholic Church in Italy toward immigrants, while highlighting some ambivalent aspects related to cultural diversity and grass-roots political engagement within parishes’ life. Full article

Social innovation has been associated with contributing to ‘valuable’ rural development; however, usually, the impact of social innovation has been identified in the aftermath of its development or implementation. This might be too narrow an approach, as an ongoing social innovation process in itself may already lead to effects that contribute to regional and social changes in a local community and beyond. This paper argues that collaborative valuation processes are embedded in social innovation processes, generating effects that contribute to rural development. Focusing on a case study that exemplifies social innovation processes in agriculture and food production carried out by a rural collaborative community in southern Italy, we demonstrate how three valuation phases, such as contestations and negotiations of norms, symbolic capital accumulation and recognition of actions, as well as re-definitions of values, impact community development through joint sense-making, empowerment and societal change. Our empirical results suggest the close intertwining of both social innovation and valuation processes. The empirical results demonstrate how collective valuation processes have micro-effects on the agro-economic system, on local socio-cultural processes, and on place-making activities. Methodologically, this paper builds on ethnographic methods, including participatory observations, semi-structured interviews, oral histories, and socio-spatial analysis investigating moments of valuation embedded in daily collaborative practices. Full article

This concept paper builds upon nascent research analyzing disability and the practice of videogame livestreaming on Twitch.tv. While a growing amount of scholarship analyzes the structure and organization of Twitch as a platform more broadly, with some attending to the platform’s marginalization of women and BIPOC streamers, few studies investigate the challenges that Twitch’s features and structures present to disabled streamers. This paper addresses this gap in the literature, considering the ways in which Twitch offers disabled streamers unique economic and community-building opportunities through its monetization and identity tag features while simultaneously presenting barriers to disabled streamers through these very same features. Utilizing a critical disability studies perspective and drawing upon forum posts made by disabled streamers and interviews with disabled streamers from online gaming news websites, I argue that Twitch reifies forms of neoliberal-ableism through its prioritizing of individual labour, precarious forms of monetization that necessitate cultures of overwork and ‘grinding’, and targeted harassment, known as hate raids, against disabled and other marginalized streamers to ultimately create a kind of integrative access where disability is tolerated but not valued. Full article

The study examines the societal issues that contribute to the level of insecurity in Nigerian society using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) co-integration technique with data from 1991 to 2022. The variables used as independent and societal factors generating insecurity include the unemployment rate; the high cost of living in society; insufficient funds for education, community social services, healthcare services, and infrastructure; and agricultural development. Among the criteria evaluated, inadequate school financing and the unemployment rate appear to be the most significant sources of insecurity in society as a result of young people’s involvement in abduction, violence, and other societal issues. The study recognizes that government measures aimed at reorienting society towards a peaceful environment for habitation are critical. It is of the utmost importance to provide employment for young people and adequately support schools in order to lower the number of youngsters who are not in school. These out-of-school children are readily persuaded to join groups that make society untenable. Thus, free education is strongly suggested to engage and develop their thoughts in a constructive manner so that they can be valuable to society. Full article