Search Results (145)

Neither women’s studies nor lesbian and gay studies offers an adequate theoretical or political base for disruptive scholarship. Reading and interpreting Southern African writers, especially Sindiwe Magona and Ngugi wa Thiong’o, promotes women’s studies as an academic and political approach to both gender and the erotic. Drawing on genealogies of rupture and intergenerational studies, we argue that the feminist is a positionality that must be widely available to challenge heterosexual perspectives and become a catalyst for audiences to engage in nuanced analyses of discourses on places and genres—narrative in particular—where memories are rearticulated and elaborated. This article explores how the narratives of Magona, Ngugi, and Soyinka inform and complicate the erasure, erosion, and amnesia that accompany contemporary imaginaries of what is re/membered. We challenge the tendency to evaluate African feminisms as only either oppressive or empowering and read the selected texts and their prototypical characters as dynamic embodiments that inform gendered spaces across both the attachments that people hold to particular gender identities and styles and recognising the punitive realities of dominant gender expectations. The article takes a positionality on the often troubled relationship between feminism and femininity, a critical but generous reading that highlights the potential for an affirmative orientation towards identity politics. This study utilises the theoretical lenses of border thinking and decolonial and African feminisms to interrogate matrifocal borderlands and the sociohistorical and cultural dis/continuities of being and becoming. We explore notions of the entanglement of motherhood, daughterhood, wifehood, and sisterhood as morphing identities. These are identities at the margins of political, sociocultural, and gender normativities in African literature. Magona’s “threshold people”, like Ngugi’s perfect nine, destabilise, disrupt, and refuse to be subordinated as they codify living differently in the in-between worlds. Magona, for instance, laminates the challenging discourse of contestation to map difficult, dangerous, and marginal spaces where women live at the borders of sociocultural, religious, ethnic, and gendered norms. These are spaces suffused with affective possibilities—defensiveness, shame, anxiety, anger, curiosity—and the women have to develop relational solidarities in negotiating hyper-visibilities or (in)visibilities within the 21st-century global south. Full article

Protected areas are critical to biodiversity conservation, yet their cultural values remain underexplored. The objective of this study is to identify the intangible cultural heritage of communities residing within and around the Imam Abdulaziz Bin Mohammed Royal Reserve and the King Khalid Royal Reserve in Saudi Arabia. Using a cross-sectional descriptive design, the study combines a literature review, semi-structured interviews, and participatory observation to identify intangible cultural heritage components across the five UNESCO domains: oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, knowledge of nature, and traditional craftsmanship. Fifty-five interviews were conducted across fourteen settlements. A comprehensive database was developed and includes the identification of fifty heritage elements—twenty-five actively practiced, sixteen were at risk of disappearance, and nine no longer practiced. Results show that craftsmanship and traditional arts were the most frequently documented domains, particularly among female participants, while some oral and performance-based traditions show signs of vulnerability in relation to intergenerational transmission. The proposed participatory and ethics-driven documentation framework, compliant with the UNESCO Convention of 2003, can support the inclusion of cultural heritage in protected area management efforts. The framework is aligned with Saudi Vision 2030 objectives related to cultural sustainability, community engagement, and heritage preservation. Full article

(1) Introduction: Transit-oriented development is often framed as a strategy to expand opportunity and advance equitable transportation. However, evidence suggests it can also contribute to rising housing costs and displacement in historically marginalized communities. This study examines how a light rail expansion reshaped displacement risk in a Latina/o community in the U.S. Southwest, identifying early mechanisms through residents’ interpretations of the expansion during construction. (2) Materials and Methods: Using a qualitative, community-engaged design, the study draws on ten in-depth pláticas with Latina/o residents conducted during construction of a major rail expansion. Data were analyzed abductively and guided by Critical Race Ecological Systems Theory (CrEST) to identify multilevel mechanisms linking infrastructure policy to lived social conditions. (3) Results: Findings identify three mechanisms through which transit investment generated displacement risk prior to relocation. First, historical and intergenerational memory shaping anticipatory displacement. Second, place-based belonging intensifying psychosocial stress and loss. Third, policy-mediated mobility constraining residents’ ability to remain or benefit from reinvestment. (4) Discussion: Transit infrastructure operates as a structural policy intervention that reorganizes risk, belonging, and stability when histories of racialized disinvestment are not incorporated into policy design. These findings position infrastructure planning as a critical site for social work policy analysis and prevention-oriented intervention. Full article

Rural adolescents face persistent health inequities driven by limited access to preventive health education, intergenerational engagement, and resources that support lifelong wellness. This study evaluated the effectiveness of Active Aging for L.I.F.E., a school-based intergenerational health literacy program, in improving adolescents’ attitudes toward aging and health. The four-session program, delivered through a train-the-trainer model involving older adults and undergraduate students, was implemented in three rural schools during the 2024–2025 academic year. A total of 86 junior high and high school students participated, with 77 completing pre- and post-program surveys assessing attitudes toward aging, health consciousness, and intergenerational engagement. Paired t-tests and multiple regression analyses examined overall program effects and differences by sex/gender and age group. Students demonstrated significant improvements in aging attitudes, perceived relevance of aging topics, enjoyment of intergenerational interaction, and awareness of health-promoting behaviors across the lifespan. Several baseline sex/gender and age-based gaps in health-related perceptions were reduced following participation, with stronger future-oriented attitude shifts observed among younger adolescents. These findings suggest that brief, scalable intergenerational interventions embedded in rural school settings can support early prevention, health literacy, and community capacity building, offering a promising strategy for advancing rural public health outcomes across the life course. Full article

Introduction: Knowledge of Iberian freshwater fish fauna among the general public is scarce and generally limited to a handful of species. Moreover, this knowledge gap increases as time goes by, particularly in younger generations, due to the lack of content on native fish fauna in school programmes. Nevertheless, schools across the country are proving increasingly receptive to innovative approaches that engage students in meaningful, real-world learning. Objectives: The LIFE PREDATOR programme leverages this opportunity to educate young people about freshwater fish communities. It aims to prevent the spread of the largest invasive fish in Portugal, the European catfish (Silurus glanis), by engaging students as active conservation ambassadors. Methodology: In inland Portugal, fishing is a cultural practice, and children frequently participate in angling activities alongside friends and family members. By reaching children, the programme simultaneously targets future anglers, potential decision-makers, and a channel for intergenerational knowledge transfer. Results: Thus far, the programme has reached over 5000 students and almost 60 schools, mostly throughout the Tagus basin. Preliminary assessments revealed improvements in students’ ability to name emblematic native fish species like the Iberian nase (Pseudochondrostoma spp.), European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and Iberian barbel (Luciobarbus spp.), and recognise the threats posed by invasives like the European catfish. To ensure national scalability, we have developed learning materials designed for use by teachers across Portugal, which are to be made available for free online. Beyond the dissemination directed to adult fishermen, which is often more demanding, Conclusions: LIFE PREDATOR ensures that knowledge about native river fauna, invasive species, and responsible fishing practices is conveyed through trusted, familiar voices. This intergenerational transmission model has the potential to embed long-lasting behavioural change within future fishing communities. Full article

Loneliness and social isolation among older adults pose significant challenges for social sustainability. Intergenerational interaction is a key to promoting social well-being and fostering inclusive communities. Using binary logistic regression and structural equation modeling, this study investigates how neighborhood environments, transportation and recreational walking, and intergenerational interactions, defined as social engagement with children, differ among 871 older adults in intergenerational (n = 436) vs. age-targeted (n = 435) communities in central Texas. Results highlight that accessible “third places”, including streets and sidewalks, churches, and restaurants, were important for supporting intergenerational interactions, with substantially higher levels of such interactions in these places among older adults from intergenerational communities. Employment status moderated the relationship between community types and intergenerational interactions. Across both community types, recreational walking emerged as a significant, positive predictor for intergenerational interactions. Modifiable neighborhood features, particularly the presence of benches along sidewalks, were positively associated with recreational walking, which in turn predicted intergenerational interactions. While age-targeted communities may offer high neighborhood satisfaction and livability, they provide fewer opportunities for routine contact with younger generations. Findings underscore the importance of walkable, inclusive communities and intentional intergenerational programming in promoting intergenerational interaction among older adults, contributing to social sustainability and healthy aging in place. Full article

Abusive relationships are too often explained solely in terms of individual behaviour, as if a woman’s decision to stay were simply a matter of psychology or poor judgement. In South African communities, however, the reality is considerably more complex. The reasons women remain are situated within what can be described as a distorted process of care: a network of relational, material, and structural forces that alter the very meaning of care itself. This study aimed to explore these interconnections. Guided by an ethics of care framework, we employed multimodal qualitative methods to engage participants from four South African communities between August 2024 and July 2025. Participants (n = 262) were recruited through snowball, purposive, and convenience sampling. Data were coded using ATLAS.ti V8 and analysed thematically. Five interconnected themes shaped the framework. Distorted care described how caregiving could become coercive, shaped by fear, rigid gender roles, intergenerational abuse, and substance misuse. Care under constraint highlighted the material limitations, financial dependency, daily survival challenges, and self-sacrificing caregiving, that left women depleted. The silence of care captured emotional withdrawal, isolation, and the disabling effect of shame on help-seeking. Reclaiming care traced the tentative routes towards healing through ethical self-care, faith, forgiveness, and a conscious effort to disrupt harmful patterns. Woven throughout was structural failure, including absent family networks, the moral decline of communities, and institutional systems that consistently failed women. Remaining in an abusive relationship is not a sign of weakness. It is a negotiation, profoundly constrained, within systems of care that have been fundamentally distorted. Effective intervention should move beyond framing gender-based violence as an individual problem and address it as a collective one, restoring care as a shared social and political responsibility. Full article

The ongoing academic debate on interpreting the disenchantment and re-enchantment of modern society remains unresolved. This study traces the theoretical genealogies of enchantment, disenchantment, and re-enchantment, proposing that enchantment is not a fixed concept but a dynamically evolving and reconstructed process. Focusing on sacred mountain circumambulation—a traditional pilgrimage ritual deeply entrenched in Tibetan cultural contexts—this study employs qualitative methods, conducting semi-structured interviews with 33 contemporary Tibetan youth to examine the manifestations of enchantment within this practice. Findings reveal that, against the backdrop of globalization and China’s social transformation, Tibetan youths’ circumambulation practices exhibit several emerging characteristics in organizational patterns, material preparation, modes of action, degree of ritual participation, and intergenerational differences. Within this pilgrimage activity, the process of disenchantment is evident as Tibetan youth attain higher levels of cultural and educational literacy. Traditional foundations of enchantment, such as taboos associated with sacred mountains and utilitarian motivations, persist. Simultaneously, new forms of enchantment with distinctly modern features—including topophilia and emotional value—are steadily emerging. The results suggest that disenchantment does not entail the demise of enchantment, nor does re-enchantment signify a return to traditional enchantment. Instead, sacred mountain circumambulation embodies the cognitive and perceptual process through which Tibetan youth engage with, understand, and negotiate enchantment via their individual lived experiences. This research not only uncovers the evolving significance of circumambulation in modern society but also offers a fresh perspective on how enchantment adapts and endures within contemporary contexts. Full article

Religion, culture, and ethnic heritage play a significant role in shaping migrant identities. This paper examines the interplay of these factors in the identity formation of African Christian migrants in Europe, with a particular focus on second-generation (2G) migrants. It analyzes how 2G individuals negotiate Western secular values alongside Pentecostal orientations in ways that facilitate upward social mobility. The study is based on a critical review of the existing literature, compared with lived realities of migrants in the Netherlands. Drawing on empirical research from various European contexts, the paper aims to provide a rigorous and multidimensional account of intergenerational identity reconstruction among 2G African Christians. By centring the Pentecostal family as a primary site of socialization, the paper explores how 2G African Christians simultaneously distance themselves from, and selectively adapt, elements of indigenous African spirit cosmologies in pursuit of secular, achievement-oriented goals. This dialectical engagement reflects a broader generational shift: while first-generation migrants tend to rely heavily on religion and religious institutions as mechanisms of integration, 2G migrants increasingly prioritize secular aspirations while navigating socioeconomic structures, negotiating belonging, and constructing hybrid forms of transnational identity. In doing so, the paper contributes to scholarship on how 2G African migrants in Europe mobilize Pentecostal spirituality as a resource for achieving secular objectives. Full article

This study examines how local social policies addressing young people’s well-being and working-life capacities within the framework of sustainable development are understood, and how they might be further developed in a Swedish municipal context. The study draws on three qualitative datasets: professionals from municipal social services, representatives of municipal units and civil society organisations, and young people aged 15–19. Data were analysed using abductive thematic analysis informed by Doyal and Gough’s theory of Human Need and Helne and Hirvilammi’s Having–Doing–Loving–Being model of relational well-being. Findings indicate that professional participants recognise links between social, economic, and ecological dimensions of sustainability, yet practice is largely oriented towards individual and social concerns, with limited engagement with the natural environment. Youth participants indicated detachment from both nature and societal processes, framed responsibility as habitual, and exhibited intergenerational detachment alongside temporal and geographical distance from sustainability issues. The findings also indicate siloed municipal sustainability policies. The study concludes that current policies may insufficiently integrate the ecological and relational dimensions of human needs and that there is a need to develop ecosocial policies and practices that promote more sustainable well-being and working-life capacities, especially for young people. Full article

This paper examines how mathematics can be approached in the context of Adult Learning and education for older adults. Senior Education in university settings can become a highly motivating, engaging, and meaningful experience for senior learners. Drawing on our teaching practice at the Senior Classroom Program of Pablo de Olavide University (Spain), this study analyzes how andragogical principles such as autonomy, relevance, life experience, and intrinsic motivation can shape powerful learning environments for senior learners (i.e., over 50 years old). By focusing on real-world connections and on historical or philosophical perspectives, the teaching of mathematics may become not only more accessible but also intellectually stimulating, particularly when the classroom climate is supportive and inclusive. From this perspective, mathematical content, often perceived as abstract or disconnected from reality, can be approached as a resource for critical reflection, personal growth, and intergenerational dialog. Our analysis suggests that mathematics does not necessarily constitute a barrier for senior learners; under appropriate pedagogical conditions, it may instead function as a bridge to lifelong learning, fostering curiosity about how the surrounding world works and encouraging engagement with meaningful real-life problems. Full article

Academic literature often frames African girls through a lens of sexual and reproductive vulnerability, with limited attention to their self-defined experiences. This study used photovoice methodology to explore how Ghanaian girls living in Nima, a neighborhood in Accra, represent their lives. Drawing on Afro-feminism and Black Girlhood Studies, the study engaged six girls in a participatory process of documenting perceptions of their lives through photographs, artists’ statements, and interviews. Thematic analysis of their visual and narrative data produced a counternarrative of girls’ lives in Nima, offering a multifaceted vision emphasizing intergenerational bonds between women and girls, and national, cultural, and spiritual pride. By centering Ghanaian girls’ voices, this study calls for a reimagining of how African girlhood is represented in social research. It affirms youth-voice knowledge production as vital to more just and accurate scholarship. Full article

The ACE-funded project Clay and Augmented Reality (CAR) explored how the combination of tactile and digital media might activate embodied memory, foster art expression, and stimulate new forms of creative learning. The project investigated memory recollection by integrating clay sculpting with immersive Augmented Reality (AR), focusing on psychoanalysis and participatory art research. The created multisensory environment was a significant element in reconnection with early-life experiences. Six workshops engaged over 40 participants in memory-mapping through AR interfaces and tactile activities. Extensive theoretical and methodological research focuses on theories of Freud, Polanyi, Ettinger, and art practice of Hepworth, integrating embodied making with experimental technologies, including 3D scanning, ARvid/HoloLens experiences, and qualitative feedback analysis. The outcome is a hybrid repository of over 120 memory-informed artefacts titled My Mother and I, presented on the sketchfab platform. The collection showcases intergenerational memory, imprints of intangible and visual storytelling. During the research, the significance of slowness, play, and relational presence was underlined as conditions for memory activation. It concludes that memory lives in gesture, spatial perception and given care, and that hybrid arts-based methods offer new epistemologies of healing, creativity and pedagogical inquiry. CAR presents a model for participatory research that bridges physical and digital realms in deeply human ways. Full article

This study investigated family language policies (FLP) in the current context of the Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR). It explored family language ideologies, management strategies, and intergenerational practices through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and participant observations. The findings indicate that Macao permanent residents’ families take Cantonese Chinese as the primary medium of communication and cultural identity. Simultaneously, Mandarin and English are often valued for their roles in academic and professional advancement. Portuguese exhibits a trend of marginalization, despite remaining one of the official languages of the Macao SAR. As for other dialects, they may be used in family conversations but are not considered important languages. Beyond this hierarchy of language values, the researchers also revealed that the FLP of Macao’s permanent residents’ families tends to be driven by both experience and foresight, enabling family members to engage in effective consultation on language choice and language learning. Regarding language practice, children’s multilingual fluency is significantly better than that of their parents. The dominant family language tendency does not influence the consensus of multilingualism and allows code-mixing to appear in conversations. In this article, FLP in Macao families is found to be shaped by both experiential knowledge and future-oriented practical considerations, while also reflecting parents’ affective concerns and responses to broader structural pressures. All these factors together form a decision-making system. In this system, both emotion and reason play their roles simultaneously. If a hierarchical distinction must be made, the rational recognition of the diverse characteristics of the linguistic environment and the dominant status of the main language will be primary. Full article

Our research aims to examine the level of biodiversity knowledge among urban residents who engage in recreational activities in different natural areas of the Province of Concepción, Chile. This territory is part of a biodiversity hotspot and has undergone significant transformations, either due to large-scale productive activities or urban expansion. To assess this type of knowledge, we used species identification as a proxy and administered an in-person questionnaire across all communes of the province (n = 232 adults). The questionnaire included illustrations of 14 species characteristic of different ecosystems in the area, and sociodemographic information was also collected from participants. Responses were analyzed using a scoring matrix, hypothesis testing, and regression analyses. The results indicate that species with food-related value were more frequently identified by older participants and less by younger individuals, whereas threatened species such as marine otter Lontra felina were poorly identified (36%) by participants aged 50 years or older. Participants without nature-related occupations (82% of the sample) identified, on average, 50% of the species, whereas those with nature-related occupations identified 71%. An intergenerational divergence in species knowledge and significant occupational differences may potentially reduce the social support needed to protect ecosystems while action is still possible. Full article