Social Sciences

The acronym NEET refers to youths aged between 15 and 34 years old who are excluded from employment, education or training. However, historically, the NEET demographic has been depicted as a largely homogenous group. Against this backdrop and given the dependency of rural economies on agricultural practices for survival, such practices have been in decline for a number of years, seriously threatening rural communities’ sustainability. While these rural NEETs can present as registered unemployed and also within the reporting statistics of various different state-funded initiatives, interventions and programmes, in the case of Rural NEETs, there is a dearth of reporting categories that highlight the specificity of this group resulting in their presence being largely overlooked within official dissemination. In order to advance this emergent field of research, presented here is a Rapid Evidence Assessment protocol that will aid future work of the authors and for others to adapt and/or adopt. Full article

Parties and their leaders are linked programmatically and non-programmatically with citizens, incentivising the latter to vote in elections and seeking to influence their choices. In this paper, we analyse the effects of politician–voter linkages on the electoral performance of incumbent mayors in Chile and on electoral turnout in their municipalities. To measure the linkages, we use personal meetings that mayors hold with citizens. While some mayors use this mechanism to solve problems of general interest (programmatic meetings), others do so to provide bureaucratic advantages or benefits for their constituents (non-programmatic meetings). We use a database of 44,162 personal meetings aggregated from Chile’s 345 municipalities. We argue that increases in the number of meetings positively impact electoral turnout and increase the chances of success for incumbent mayors when they compete for re-election. This effect is particularly significant in the case of electoral performance and the re-election of mayors in municipalities with high levels of rurality. Finally, we report that the meetings not only help mayors to link with their constituents but also help them to publicise their political work. Full article

Graduate employability is a multifaceted concept considering the Sustainable Development Goals. Graduate employability and skills development are also significant determinants for future career success. Graduate employability has seen more sweeping emphasis and concerns in national and global job markets, due to the ever-rising number of unemployed people, which has increased even more due to COVID-19. Due to its importance, this study investigates the current state of skill development initiatives in Bangladesh and the perceptions of university graduates regarding skill development for their future employability. This study uses mixed-method research. Data was collected through surveys and in-depth interviews; various probabilistic and non-probabilistic sample selection methods were used. A total of 437 participants responded to this study. After analysis, the data was shown descriptively. The empirical findings of this study demonstrated that university graduates are well-aware of the skill development requirements for their future employability. However, university graduates face many obstacles in acquiring these necessary skill development opportunities. Therefore, the government and relevant stakeholders must work together to alleviate the obstacles. Furthermore, this study includes recommendations that can assist in developing a model for skill development programs and initiatives in the country for university graduates to ensure their future employability. Full article

Although nuances around the definitions and contextualization of social cohesion subsist, this paper views social cohesion through the lens of social cooperation and togetherness within a collective in geopolitical terms, expressed in the attitudes and behaviours of its members. In many countries, including South Africa, social cohesion remains an ideal to strive for and achieve. Extant studies suggest that trust is one of the key factors in building social cohesion. As such, this paper aims to explore trust in the context of social cohesion. This study attempts to address the knowledge gaps regarding the views, feelings, and experiences around trust and also make a contribution to the qualitative inquiry of trust in the context of social cohesion in rural communities of South Africa. Accordingly, the perceptions and experiences of people in two rural communities (Lambert’s Bay and Philippolis) regarding trust in the context of social cohesion were explored. A qualitative methodology was employed in order to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptions of trust. A total of 19 participants were interviewed, comprising of community stakeholders and parents. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data in face-to-face interviews with participants. Data collected were analysed using Braun and Clark’s thematic analysis. The study found that trust among community members in both Lambert’s Bay and Philippolis was limited. In instances where there was trust, it was mainly amongst participants who know each other compared to individuals who do not know each other. Thus, in both communities, generalised trust continues to be a challenge. Full article

Covid has intensified inequalities in the UK, particularly for those already living with structural disadvantage, and despite community and popular resistance to those losses. Covid has also disproportionately affected people with HIV, especially those already living with multi-dimensional inequalities. However, many people with HIV have, as they have done before, made strong and often successful efforts to resist and to restore or reconstruct their citizenships, in opposition to dominant, dispossessing discourses during Covid times. A narrative approach offers a means of mapping these citizenly technologies. This article draws on a 2020 study conducted with 16 people living with HIV in the UK. The study explored, through telephone semi-structured interviews, the health, economic, and psychosocial resources with which these participants lived with HIV and how Covid has impacted those resources. Narrative analysis showed losses of HIV and other health resources, constituting reductions in health citizenship, resisted largely by reconstitutions of alternatives within the HIV sector; losses of economic citizenship, despite oppositional, anti-political attempts to retain it, and of psychosocial citizenship, in spite of family and friendship networks; resistant, ‘alter’ development of renewed HIV citizenships; and across fields, resistance by complaint. This study indicates that ‘de-citizening’ citizenship losses are likely to also affect other groups with long-term conditions, illnesses, and disabilities. Resistant ‘re-citizening’ technologies, while important, had limited effects. The study suggests potential future resistant effects of repeated ‘complaint’ about Covid-era citizenship losses, and the more general significance of histories of dissent for future effective resistance. Full article

In “Postscript on Societies of Control”, French philosopher Gilles Deleuze proclaimed that “Everywhere surfing has replaced the older sports”. By this, he alluded to Foucault’s thoughts on older societal regimes and power diagrams of sovereignty and discipline, and that now such models have been supplemented with governance through control and allegations of increased freedom. This article has as its point of departure the potential of sports to reflect social change. Contemporaneously to the coining of Deleuze’s surfing sentence, a new sport emerges: parkour, in which practitioners “surf” the urban realm. This practice gained attention globally when it was featured in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. The analysis in this article revolves around the different ways of moving in and through the environment in the renowned parkour chase in the beginning of the movie. How do different kinds of displacement in the parkour chase of Casino Royale relate to the transition between the societies described by Deleuze, and what new adaptations emerge and what old logics and models return? It is concluded that the older forms of power prevail and that the ideal of the society of control cannot be realised. Full article

This literature review is dedicated to the subject of agent-based modelling for the system of international migration, and of the modelling of policies that are known to aid in its management. The reason for the selection of agent-based modelling as a framework for studying international migration is that the system of international migration presents the characteristics of a complex system: notably, its property of emergence, which therefore imposes the usage of a methodology for its modelling that is capable of reflecting its emergent traits. The policies that we study are those that intervene in the country of origin of emigrants and that are aimed at decreasing the aggregate volume of emigrants from that country. The reason for this choice is that policies in the countries of origin have become particularly attractive today, especially in European countries, under the assumption that it should be possible to prevent the migrants from reaching the point of destination of their journey if some kind of action is undertaken before the migrants arrive. We start by discussing the theoretical constraints that suggest how this approach may only partially be valid. Then, to assist the development of future agent-based models that study migration, we identify via topic mining the ten topics that are most commonly discussed in the literature on the application to the international migration of agent-based models; this lets us highlight the characteristics of an agent-based model that should be included when the research task relates to the usage of ABM to study international migration and its associated policies. Finally, we indicate why the existing literature on the modelling of international migration is missing a key aspect that is required to correctly model policies: the integration between agent-based approaches and systems dynamics. Full article

This paper brings together two qualitative studies exploring how domestic violence and abuse (DVA) manifests within UK Muslim communities. Study one was conducted with UK-based Muslim female survivors of DVA (n = 10). Study two was conducted with UK professionals working in a supportive capacity with both DVA victims/survivors and those perpetrating abuse within Muslim communities (n = 9). Through a multi-perspective interpretative phenomenological lens, the two data sets were analysed for overarching themes. These themes were subsequently used to develop a graphical representation of the findings. The resulting outcome was the web model of DVA. The model identifies the trajectories and interactions at four levels in relation to DVA in Muslim communities. It is argued that this model has increased capacity for understanding the extended nature of how DVA manifests for UK Muslim communities, with a particular emphasis on the active role of faith and additional nuances often missed by singular methodological approaches. The model is recommended for use by services as a means toward individually tailored client care. Recommendations are made in relation to inclusive and decolonial approaches within gender-related violence research relating to minority communities in the UK. Full article

This article, written with parents as co-authors, has two aims: (1) to provide a critical view of the English child protection system based on parents’ views and to locate these views within contemporary child protection studies and (2) to present the transformative value of co-production in the context of child protection studies both as a form of critical scholarship and as a means to influence policy and practice. The current children’s social work system in England does not achieve good outcomes for families, and many children and parents frequently experience it as stigmatizing, inhumane, and harmful. The article presents the experience and recommendations for change produced by parents with a broad range of experience with child protection services in England. The Parents, Families and Allies Network worked with five allied organizations in which parents identified the extensive range of problems that the current system presents and ways forward to achieve more supportive, humane, and inclusive practice with families. Seven main themes emerged: a better definition of need and response to need; partnership, participation, and humane practice; improving legal representation and support in legal proceedings; better support in care proceedings; permanence that maintains links; a better response to domestic violence; and the lack of support for disabled children. The article discusses five features of the project that supported meaningful co-production: taking a political stance, choosing clear and feasible aims, incorporating a range of knowledge, the participation of parents with lived experience throughout all phases of the project, and not settling with just knowledge production. Full article

Africa’s security issues have suffered serious attention deficits. This article analyses why a globally accepted health security norm, such as fighting a communicable disease during a pandemic such as the COVID-19 pandemic, was, in Africa, perceived as a security threat emanating from external—foreign—actors importing a ‘foreign virus’ into Africa. This fear-based perception can be explained by West Africa’s ontological security fears, ultimately based on its colonial past and a relationship of exploitation by the West. While this article analyses the case of COVID-19, it also explains the same process with previous epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS and EDV/Ebola. Full article

The paper aims to investigate users’ behavior regarding inbound marketing while consuming content, in particular, to reveal the source of the reasons and triggers affecting content need in the case of long-consumption products. In the theoretical part of the article, the literature analysis is conducted in order to build a theoretical background. The variety of theories of content values as well as users’ decision-making processes are analyzed, and a conceptual view of the origins of content need is formed, which states that the need for a specific type of content emerges under the conditions of the consumer’s experienced gap of information or knowledge when in the stages of the buying model. In order to test this hypothesis, empirical research—the survey—was conducted. The main conclusion is that the decision-to-buy model makes a significant impact on the gap experienced by the consumer of the content and has the potential to be used to reveal the need for different content types in terms of its purposes. Full article

This paper examines the tension between safeguarding measures and participant agency in conducting feminist interviews with survivors of sexual violence in universities. There is a core contradiction inherent in feminist research of gender-related violence, including sexual violence, because participants have been traumatized: Research with survivors of violence must enact appropriate safeguarding measures to ensure their emotional wellbeing, yet in designing these safeguarding measures, researchers must also ensure that survivor participants can exert agency within the research process. These phenomena are often at odds as safeguarding—the work of protecting participants through limiting their exposure to upsetting stimuli—appears to circumscribe participant agency, or a participant’s ability to make informed choices for themselves that respond to and change the structures in which they are situated. Using part of my doctoral thesis research’s methodology, I detail the safeguarding measures I implemented for participants as well as highlight how and where I attempted to build in agential engagement for survivor participants, and whether, or how often, survivors took up these options. The article concludes by suggesting ways gender-related violence research more broadly can reflect on and continue to interrogate how researchers balance safeguarding requirements while enabling survivors to assert their agency in the research process. Full article

In recent decades, discourse on quality, school effectiveness, autonomy, and accountability, among other topics, has been used to try to transform schools. This paper explores this situation from the teaching perspective of one of its authors. Using autoethnography as a research and formative strategy, a mixed category system is constructed by combining a central category (“Neoliberal school”) theoretically and deductively with three other subcategories of an emergent and inductive nature according to the parameters of grounded theory. The results reflect different perceptions of neoliberal educational discourse that depend on the discursive field in question (policy framework, school, department, or classroom). The conclusions underline the potential of autoethnography for understanding the current school reality and teacher professional development. Full article

The current article reports on the second large-scale prevalence study on transgressive behavior in sport in the Netherlands, and is a follow up of an earlier, comparable prevalence study in 2015. Using a dedicated and customized online questionnaire, approximately 4000 adults who met the inclusion criteria (18 to 50 years old and have played sports in an organized context during childhood in the Netherlands) were surveyed with respect to their experiences of childhood psychological, physical, and sexual transgressive behavior while playing sports. The survey showed that 71.7% experienced some form of transgressive behavior as a child, in which 48.6% of these events also made an impact (in other words, was significant at the time it took place). The degree of impact the event made is also related to the severity of the event. Severe emotional transgression events occurred in 22% of the youth athletes, severe physical assault events in 12.7%, and severe sexual assault events occurred in 6.9% of the youth athletes. Disabled athletes, and those competing at national and international levels, report more experiences of transgressive behavior in sport. The results are consistent with former research and indicate the need for structural attention to create a safe sports climate. Full article

Domestic violence is a serious problem in Portugal, affecting mainly women. The significant number of femicides in the context of intimate partner violence has been showing not only the severity of the crime, but also the necessity to reinforce strategies to prevent and combat it. Although several studies were developed in the last decades to portray domestic violence, research on the threat of death and attempted femicide is scarce. This study aims to characterize death threats and attempts of femicide, in the light of the professionals’ perspectives from the Portugal National Support Network for Victims of Domestic Violence, contributing to informing best practices of risk assessment. Seventy-one professionals, 62 female (87.3%) and 9 male (12.7%), at an average age of 37.69 years, filled a questionnaire survey. Results suggest weaknesses in the application of current legislation and the adoption of effective measures in situations where victims experience death threats and attempted murders. Although there are criminal proceedings before these episodes, this does not seem to have effective consequences in terms of protection and security, whereby the development of strategies that safeguard victims from tragic endings such as femicide are necessary. Full article

The COVID-19 crisis is arguably the most important development of the 21st century so far and takes its place alongside the great eruptions of the past century. As with any crisis, the current pandemic has stimulated visions and proposals for post-COVID-19 societies. Our focus is on narratives—both predictive and prescriptive—that envisage post-COVID-19 political societies. Combining narrative analysis with thematic analysis, we argue that societal changes conditioned by the pandemic have accelerated a turn toward five inter-related developments: A renaissance in rationality and evidence-based science; a return to social equality and equity, including wage equity and guaranteed incomes; a reimagining of the interventionist state in response to crises in the economy, society, the welfare state, and social order; a reorientation to the local and communitarian, with reference in particular to solidaristic mutual aid, community animation, local sourcing, and craft production; and the reinvention of democracy through deep participation and deliberative dialogical decision making. The empirical focus of our work is an analysis of predominantly legacy media content from the Canadian Periodicals Index related to life after the pandemic and post-COVID-19 society. Full article

Academia is often pointed out as a challenging environment to evolve in, especially for women. Whilst women perform in multidisciplinary settings, studies point out still-existing gender gaps in academia, especially in positions of power. This study looks at decision-making positions in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), specifically in Portuguese academic research. Furthermore, we seek to understand if research roles are distributed equally gender-wise among cohorts in research units, as well as if deans’ genders are a factor of influence in such role attributions. We will look at the research roles in academia, particularly research units fostered by HEIs, to observe gender distribution based on total cohorts. Using univariate and bivariate tests, our research aims to assess gender distribution in leading research roles in public and private institutions. We take the specific case of Portugal; therefore, we cannot extrapolate the results to other countries. However, outcomes point out resisting differences in fields of research and coordination and role distribution among R&D units, as well as in fundamental relations between power positions in academia and research. Full article

This paper aimed to explore the impact of Kosovar teachers’ characteristics on the performance of fourth-grade students in TIMSS 2019. The paper addressed the characteristics of teachers, demographic, and academics, which are closely related to the overall performance of students. In this research, data from the TIMSS 2019 database were used, for which 4435 Kosovar students were tested, and 192 teachers were surveyed. The findings show that Kosovar students did not perform well in TIMSS 2019. They achieved 444 points in the field of mathematics and 413 points in science (average TIMSS 500 points) and were ranked 49th out of 56 countries participating in the test. Data from the teacher survey show that the characteristics of teachers, such as age, professional development, pre-service education, contemporary approach to teaching, etc., also played an important role in the low-scoring performance of Kosovar students in TIMSS 2019. Students who had a teacher with an average age of 30–60 years had a better performance on the test, achieving a difference of 20 points more, compared to students who had new or older teachers (under 30 years and over 60 years). The lack of professional development of teachers also had a major impact on student performance. On average, 25% of teachers in the last 2 years had attended training in certain areas, while on average 80% of them were willing to attend training programs that would improve the profile of their competencies. Full article