Social Sciences

The objective of this article is to examine how gendered institutional practices constrain the substantive political participation of Amazigh-speaking women elected to local councils in Morocco. Although constitutional reforms, gender quotas, and the official recognition of Amazigh have expanded women’s formal political representation, less attention has been paid to the institutional processes that continue to restrict their effective participation in local governance. Existing studies have primarily attributed women’s political marginalization to sociocultural and structural factors, while paying comparatively limited attention to how everyday institutional arrangements reproduce unequal opportunities for political participation. Drawing on Feminist Institutionalism, the Capability Approach, Bourdieu’s concept of linguistic capital, Spivak’s notion of subaltern silencing, and intersectionality, this study examines how linguistic, spatial, and temporal arrangements operate as interconnected mechanisms of exclusion. Focusing on the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region as a case study, the analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with elected women councilors and local government officials. The findings indicate that the institutional dominance of Arabic in council deliberations, the organization of meetings in male-dominated spaces such as rural cafés, and the scheduling of meetings at times that conflict with women’s social responsibilities can collectively constrain Amazigh-speaking women’s ability to understand political debates, participate effectively in deliberations, and influence decision-making processes. These practices suggest that gendered institutional inequalities can be reproduced not only through explicit legal discrimination, but also through routine institutional arrangements embedded in the everyday functioning of local councils. The article argues that substantive political participation depends not only on formal legal representation but also on equitable access to the linguistic, spatial, and temporal conditions required for meaningful democratic deliberation. It contributes to the debate on women’s political participation by showing how apparently ordinary institutional rules, routines, spaces, and practices can reproduce gendered inequalities and thereby contribute to the persistence of institutionalized patriarchal relations.

This study is part of an evaluation of a restorative circles program for domestic violence. We use quantitative and qualitative data from parties responsible for the violence and qualitative interviews with victim-survivors to examine the impact of restorative programming. Bandura’s theory of moral disengagement informed our collection of sociometric measures and semi-structured interviews. Results indicate that restorative justice processes may be an important antidote to moral disengagement. The quantitative data revealed significant changes in moral justification, externalization of blame, and distortion of harmful consequences, among other key measures indirectly related to moral disengagement, such as empathy and acceptance of violence. Victim-survivors derived benefits from the restorative program, but their perspectives were mixed regarding changes in their partners/ex-partners. We discuss the complexity of these findings and implications for domestic violence restorative justice programs.

Digital technologies increasingly shape children’s sleep, family routines, peer relationships, and school adjustment, creating challenges for school social work. This concurrent mixed-methods study examined associations between digital technology use and psychosocial and behavioral functioning among children aged 8–12 years in Qatar and explored how school social workers interpret and respond to these challenges. Quantitative data were collected from 231 parents or primary caregivers using an Arabic questionnaire covering digital-use and sleep indicators, household screen-time regulation, and the parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 10 school social workers. The mean Total Difficulties Score was 19.03 (SD = 8.08), with hyperactivity/inattention showing the highest subscale mean. In the primary multivariate model, sleep quality, morning waking difficulty, bedtime device use, and household screen-time rules were associated with the four SDQ difficulty domains at the multivariate level. Separate supplementary one-way MANOVAs also identified multivariate associations for school-day and weekend/holiday screen duration, device-use purpose, sleep duration, and adherence to household rules. Thematic analysis identified five themes: attention and self-regulation, sleep-related school readiness, psychosocial and relational consequences, family–school regulation gaps, and professional preparedness. Qualitative findings provided practice-based context for interpreting the survey patterns. The findings support a context-sensitive approach to understanding children’s digital technology use that considers its duration, timing, and purpose alongside sleep, family regulation, and the school context.