Search Results (166)

Inclusive education is at the forefront of transnational policy agendas. Yet, normative, deficit-oriented disability discourses and institutional gaps continue to shape how inclusion is enacted in schools, often displacing extensive and unacknowledged labour onto families, especially mothers. Drawing on feminist theories of invisible work, this article critically examines the everyday labour performed by mothers of disabled children as they navigate inclusive education systems in Alberta, Canada. Situated within a broader collective case study, this analysis asks: What forms of invisible work do mothers undertake in pursuit of inclusion within education systems labelled as inclusive? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine mothers of disabled children. Reflexive thematic analysis illuminated four intersecting dimensions of invisible work: (1) working within the system, (2) working to fit the system, (3) crafting system workarounds, and (4) working above and beyond the system. These forms of work reveal how inclusive education systems rely on mothers to bridge the gap between policy rhetoric and lived experiences. Findings illuminate how mothers’ invisible work simultaneously sustains, negotiates, and resists systemic ableism, highlighting the need to recognize and redistribute this work and reimagine inclusion as a shared structural responsibility rather than an individual, maternal pursuit. Full article

Europe is dealing with environmental problems that require cooperation beyond national and regional borders. Air pollution, water pollution, biodiversity loss, and waste management are the major issues that are not only complex but also cross borders. Therefore, it is necessary to provide collaborative responses that go beyond the capacity of individual countries. This inquiry centers on the question of what the best way is to set up and govern the transnational cooperation in Europe to confront these major environmental challenges. A systematic bibliographic review of the research conducted between 2010 and 2025 forms the basis of this work. The research combines semantic analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) modeling to study 80 selected publications to find the tenets of the themes discussed. The identified topics are urban climate change adaptation and mitigation, climate policy and management, adaptation and vulnerability frameworks, land use and biodiversity impacts, and future climate projections and assessment. The findings show that there are strong synergies between biodiversity and climate adaptation, resilience, and environmental governance, as well as the great influence of climate change on the water management sector. The study has unveiled the significance of institutional policy frameworks in bringing about environmental cooperation across borders. In addition, it depicts the relationship between local urban projects and supra-regional policy strategies, in which the two can merge and function efficiently as long as they are working towards the common goal of environmental sustainability. This study is meant to shed more light on the area of environmental governance research, discovering areas that need more exploration, and providing some signposts on how to improve environmental involvement in Europe. Full article

This integrative review on patterns of elder caregiving in Nigeria synthesizes evolving dynamics and determinants of caregiving practices amid demographic and household change. The objective of this review was to identify prevalent patterns of elder caregiving, explore the roles and responsibilities of caregivers, and examine the challenges and support needs within the Nigerian context. Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Medline were searched in November 2024. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed journal articles published in English focusing on elder caregiving among Nigerians; non-peer-reviewed sources (e.g., dissertations, conference papers, and books) were excluded. Data extraction was performed using a structured matrix, and findings were synthesized thematically. Risk of bias was appraised using SANRA (for narrative reviews) and MMAT (for empirical studies). Twenty studies published between 1991 and December 2022 were included. Analyses were guided by an intersectional conceptual framework spanning five domains: cultural, familial, economic, psychosocial, and policy. The interconnected dimensions illustrate how cultural expectations shape family caregiving roles, which in turn influence economic strain, emotional well-being, and access to institutional support. By emphasizing the interaction among gender, class, and social location within these domains, the framework demonstrates how caregiving operates as a multidimensional and relational process. Thematic synthesis identified six overarching themes: cultural influences, gender differences, family dynamics, economic factors, challenges faced by Nigerian caregivers, and government policies and support. Limitations include reliance on single-reviewer screening and extraction, exclusion of unpublished and non-peer-reviewed sources, restriction to English-language studies, and a focus on the Nigerian context, which may limit generalizability. Findings underscore that elder caregiving in Nigeria is multifaceted and shaped by intersecting gendered, cultural, and economic forces. Policy and practice should prioritize caregiver supports, accessible geriatric services, and gender-sensitive interventions, while future research applies the framework to address gaps in transnational and multilingual evidence. Full article

Background/Objectives: Conversations about end-of-life care or advance care planning are often difficult and emotionally challenging to initiate. Tailoring messages to the specific audiences can make these sensitive discussions more manageable and effective. The Evidence-based Model for the Transfer and Exchange of Research Knowledge (EMTReK), compromising six core components (message, stakeholders, processes, context, facilitation, and evaluation) offers a structured framework for research dissemination and knowledge transfer in palliative and long-term care settings. Knowledge translation bridges research and practice, with its effectiveness depending on stakeholder engagement, tailored communication, and systematic application of evidence in policy and practice. This study explores stakeholder perspectives on a dementia care intervention, using EMTReK as an analytical framework to examine how knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) actions were implemented across long-term care settings. Methods: A qualitative analysis was conducted on primary data comprising case narratives from multinational research groups involved in the “Caregiver Decision Support” (mySupport) study (2019–2023). Teams from Canada, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom evaluated the mySupport intervention through interviews, with analysis guided by components of the EMTReK model. Results: Facilitated Family Care Conferences were found to be effective mechanisms for supporting knowledge transfer and intervention uptake in dementia care across nursing homes in Europe and Canada. Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Family Care Conferences adapted through stakeholder engagement, interactive learning, and innovative communication methods. Using EMTReK as an analytical framework, the research team identified key elements that contributed to successful implementation, including the importance of flexibility to accommodate local contexts. Conclusions: The transnational application of the EMTReK model for advance care planning in long-term dementia care highlights the importance of tailored, culturally relevant knowledge translation strategies, which, despite challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, were successfully implemented through local adaptations and diverse dissemination methods, emphasising the need for further research on their impact on resident and family outcomes. Full article

The Danube River is one of Europe’s largest transboundary rivers, characterized by substantial spatial heterogeneity in environmental conditions, monitoring practices, and water management frameworks. Developing a harmonized approach for basin-wide surface-water quality assessment is therefore essential. This study presents the development and application of an adapted Water Quality Index (Danube WQI) for assessing and monitoring water quality along the Danube River, one of Europe’s largest and most complex transboundary systems. The Danube WQI is based on established WQI methodologies and integrates two objective weighting approaches—the Entropy Weight Method (EWM) and the CRITIC (Criteria Importance Through Inter-Criteria Correlation) method—to minimize subjectivity and improve the robustness of parameter weighting. Long-term water quality data from the TransNational Monitoring Network (TNMN) of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) were used, covering 42 stations across nine countries (1996–2022). Nine parameters were selected: dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), total nitrogen (TN), nitrate (NO₃), ammonium (NH₄), total phosphorus (TP), orthophosphate (PO₄), electrical conductivity (EC), and pH. During the formation of sub-indices and rating curves, national water quality standards from the Danube countries were harmonized to ensure consistent parameter classification. Results indicate that the Danube River generally exhibits very good water quality, with most sections belonging to the first and second quality classes. Comparison with the Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI) confirmed similar results but demonstrated higher seasonal sensitivity of the Danube WQI. Additionally, rankings obtained using the PROMETHEE II multicriteria method showed strong agreement with the Danube WQI classifications, further confirming the robustness of the proposed index. The proposed index provides a harmonized and transferable framework that can support integrated water management and policy evaluation across the Danube River Basin and within the EU Water Framework Directive context. Full article

South Africa has relatively recently transitioned from a condition of legislated racial stratification to a democracy in which all South Africans now enjoy political enfranchisement. While political emancipation has been achieved, economic and social emancipation remain elusive for the majority of Black South Africans who still bear the brunt of poverty and deprivation. South Africa’s white colonial communities, having relinquished political power, continue to retain and enjoy economic and social class privileges. Despite state-driven social cohesion and nation-building initiatives, the envisaged ‘rainbow nation’ (a metaphor coined by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu) is becoming an increasingly fragile social aspiration. Historical legacies, especially regarding white affirmation, wealth accumulation, and the imperative for economic redistribution and land reform, have become key flashpoints in contemporary South Africa. This paper addresses the issue of how South Africa’s corrective justice and affirmative action policies are re-racialised into narratives of reverse racism, white persecution, and white genocide. It examines how racial arbitrage works where whiteness is systematically re-racialised and traded for its value in a different country context. It examines how disillusioned white South Africans leverage white racial and class privilege for transnational mobility and protections, white settler-colonial receptivity and white nationhood. It draws attention to the tensions and contradictions in global asylum regimes, illuminating transnational networks of privilege and economic superpower coercion. Full article

Introduction: In recent decades, the burden of mental disorders has become a major determinant of population health in the European Union, generating profound clinical, socioeconomic, and institutional consequences. Despite political recognition of this silent crisis, substantial methodological challenges persist in the transnational monitoring of mental health and in linking disease burden with the resources allocated to address it. The present analysis develops a multivariate taxonomy of EU Member States from a psychosocial perspective, using an integrative quantitative approach. Methods: This cross-sectional, comparative study follows international standards for transparent and reproducible quantitative reporting and is based on 18 harmonized clinical, epidemiological, and institutional indicators collected for 27 EU Member States over the period 2014–2023. The indicators used in this study were grouped according to their position along the care continuum. Hospital-based indicators refer to inpatient activity and institutional capacity, including total hospital discharges, psychiatric admissions (affective disorders, schizophrenia, dementia, alcohol- and drug-related disorders), and hospital bed availability. Outpatient and community-level indicators reflect the capacity of systems to provide non-hospital psychiatric care and consist primarily of psychiatrist density and total specialist medical workforce. Finally, subjective perception indicators capture population-level self-assessed health status, complementing clinical and institutional measures by integrating a psychosocial perspective. After harmonization and standardization, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation was applied to identify latent dimensions of mental health. Model adequacy was confirmed using the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin coefficient (0.747) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (p < 0.001). Results: Three latent dimensions explaining 77.7% of the total variance were identified: (1) institutionalized psychiatric burden, (2) functional capacity of the health care system, and (3) suicidal vulnerability associated with problematic substance use. Standardized factor scores allowed for the classification of Member States, revealing distinct patterns of psychosocial risk. For example, Germany and France display profiles marked by high levels of institutionalized psychiatric activity, while the Baltic and Southeast European countries exhibit elevated suicidal vulnerability in the context of limited medical resources. These results highlight the deep heterogeneity of psychiatric configurations in Europe and reveal persistent gaps between population needs and institutional response capacity. Conclusions: The analysis provides an empirical foundation for differentiated public policies aimed at prevention, early intervention, and stigma reduction. It also supports the case for institutionalizing a European mental health monitoring system based on harmonized indicators and common assessment standards. Overall, the findings clarify the underlying structure of mental health across the European Union and underscore the need for coherent, evidence-based strategies to reduce inequalities and strengthen system performance at the continental level. Full article

This study explores how sustainable culinary tourism fosters rural diversification and resilience in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Despite increasing recognition of gastronomy as a driver of sustainable tourism, comparative analyses across macro-regional contexts remain limited. The paper addresses this gap through a qualitative comparative analysis of twelve thematic culinary trails involving seventy-three small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) developed under the INTERREG Baltic Sea Region Programme’s BASCIL project. Drawing on documentary analysis, stakeholder consultations, and thematic coding, the research identifies six interconnected pathways: agritourism and farm-based experiences, rural gastronomic branding, culinary festivals, digitalization, sustainability and circular economy practices, and European Union (EU) policy support. Results reveal that culinary tourism strengthens local economies, reinforces cultural identity, and promotes transnational cooperation, while challenges persist in professionalization, digital adoption, and infrastructure. The study underscores the enabling role of EU frameworks in scaling innovation and embedding gastronomy within rural development strategies. It concludes that culinary tourism operates as a strategic lever for sustainable rural transformation, integrating economic, social, and environmental dimensions, and calls for further longitudinal research on its long-term socio-economic and policy impacts in the BSR and beyond. Full article

Evangelical churches increasingly engage in transnational partnerships that shape spiritual identity and moral belonging across borders. This study investigates how such partnerships function not simply as organizational strategies but as lived spatial practices grounded in faith. Drawing on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of interviews with Canadian and Mexican participants in a long-term church-planting relationship, the article explores how theological commitments, emotional ties, and embodied rituals generate spatial meaning. Participants framed their engagement not through institutional goals, but through metaphors of family, covenant, and companionship, suggesting a grassroots geopolitics rooted in care, hospitality, and spiritual presence. The findings reveal that space is produced not only through ideology or policy, but through practices like shared meals, cross-cultural mentorship, and prayerful presence—acts that reconfigure belonging along theological and affective lines. The article introduces the concept of religeopolitics to describe this phenomenon, arguing that evangelical actors are not merely influenced by global geopolitics but actively create alternative spatial imaginaries through faith. Foregrounding religious subjectivity in spatial production, this article advances scholarship on lived religion and critical geopolitics, highlighting how spiritual communities shape geopolitical belonging through theological imagination, relational duration, and embodied moral practice. Full article

Enterprises engaged in transnational operations are confronted with increasingly complex environmental policies and compliance challenges. A critical hurdle to achieving sustainable development lies in rapidly and accurately extracting environmental protection requirements from vast volumes of policy. To address this, our study introduces an automated framework for knowledge graph construction, termed iteration–extraction–optimization (IEO), driven by a large language model (LLM). Diverging from conventional linear extraction methods, the IEO framework employs an iterative enhancement process to progressively build and refine a policy knowledge network, capturing the intricate relationships among legislation, institutions, and environmental obligations. As a case study, we applied the framework to Niger’s environmental policy, constructing a large-scale knowledge graph with 61,912 entities and 81,389 relations. Preliminary evaluations demonstrate the framework’s high performance in knowledge capture completeness, achieving a recall of 0.93 and an F1-score of 0.84. This research presents a novel paradigm for the intelligent parsing of environmental policy texts, providing a knowledge graph that serves as a vital decision-support tool for corporate environmental risk management and strategic sustainability planning. Full article

Intergenerational contact is a key component of the informal support systems that contribute to the wellbeing of older adults. As societies age and migration patterns diversify family structures, understanding how contact is sustained across generations becomes increasingly relevant for health equity and the sustainability of care systems. In this study, we conceptualise sustainability not in environmental terms but as social and health-system sustainability—that is, the long-term ability of families and care systems to maintain intergenerational ties, ensure equitable access to support, and remain resilient under demographic and social pressures. Drawing on theories of intergenerational solidarity and social capital, this study situates contact as both a resource for individual wellbeing and a pillar of care sustainability in diverse societies. We examine the frequency of contact between parents and adult children among adults aged 50 and above, comparing migrant and non-migrant populations across 25 European countries. Using data from Waves 7, 8, and the COVID-19 wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we assess both in-person and digital forms of contact before and during the pandemic. Results show that older migrants have less frequent contact with parents but more frequent contact with children than do non-migrants, with similar patterns attested across repeated cross-sections (2017, 2019, 2021). The strong contact observed in each cross-section, facilitated by digital tools, implies resilient family ties under public-health stress. However, resilience is uneven: weaker contact with parents among migrant populations reflects structural barriers such as visa restrictions, caregiving responsibilities, discrimination, language barriers, and unequal digital access. Moreover, differences in access and proficiency with digital tools suggest that digital contact did not compensate equally across groups. These findings underscore the importance of sustainable and inclusive strategies in ageing and health policy. Specifically, targeted digital literacy programmes for older migrants, policies supporting transnational caregiving, affordable internet access, mobility solutions, and anti-discrimination measures in family visitation are crucial to reducing inequities. Full article

The global population of older adults is growing rapidly, and refugees are now a significant proportion of the older adult population in Canada. Transnational healthcare practices (THPs)—seeking health information or services from the country of origin—may be an essential strategy used by refugee older adults in Canada, but few studies have explored this phenomenon. This is a protocol for a study, which is aimed at developing a comprehensive understanding of the role THPs play in the lives of older adults from three refugee groups (Afghan, Syrian and Ukrainian) (re)settled in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada. It will be informed by Constructivist Grounded Theory and will consist of three phases. Phase 1 will involve semi-structured individual interviews with Afghan, Syrian, and Ukrainian refugee older adults living in the GTA (n = 75–90) to explore their perspectives and experiences with various types of THP. Phase 2 will also involve semi-structured interviews with 75–90 refugee older adults from the three communities to examine the role of THP in stress, coping, and resilience in the context of health promotion, illness diagnosis, and disease management as well as the individual and contextual factors driving the use of THPs. Phase 3 will involve six focus groups (n = 36–48) with refugee older adults from these communities to explore what information, care, supports, technology, and services are needed to manage their health and illnesses locally. This project will advance knowledge in the areas of (re)settlement and integration, aging, local healthcare access, and THPs among refugee older adults in Canada. The findings will inform more effective integration policies and the delivery of efficient and equitable health information, care, support, technology, and services that address the healthcare needs of refugee older adults, enabling them to age well and age in place. Full article

Grounded in frameworks of decoloniality and transnationalism, this study examines how organizational behaviors in education—particularly in teacher preparation—can shift to more inclusively serve transnational youth, challenging Eurocentric, nation-bound assumptions about pedagogy, belonging, and professional development. The present study aims to understand Mexican-origin returnees and transnational migrants who came back to Mexico to pursue English teacher preparation degrees in Guanajuato and Hidalgo after spending significant periods of time on either side of the Mexico-U.S. border. Our study aimed to recognize and describe the experiences that shaped their English teaching practices and professional commitments to teaching English as a foreign language. Using narrative inquiry within a longitudinal qualitative study of 28 Mexican-origin pre-service English teachers, our research was guided by frameworks of decoloniality and transnationalism. Our findings reveal that for participants, U.S.-based teaching approaches were recalled most often as the best compared to Mexican ones. Participants also reflected on how their experiences of learning and adapting to a new culture contributed to their professional identity and how their ability to adapt constituted a form of international-mindedness. We argue that through the comparison and adoption of multiple decolonial practices, teacher preparation programs can produce culturally responsive pedagogies that cross borders. By illustrating how teacher preparation programs can cultivate culturally responsive pedagogies that transcend national boundaries, the study highlights the potential of decolonial and transnational perspectives to transform organizational behavior at multiple levels of educational practice and policy. Full article

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) represents one of the world’s most ambitious transnational infrastructure and investment programs, but its implementation faces considerable external risks. Specifically, these risks include geopolitical instability, regulatory disparities, socio-cultural conflicts, and economic volatility, which threaten project continuity, economic viability, and sustainability of the BRI framework. Consequently, effective risk recognition and prediction has become crucial for mitigating disruptions and supporting evidence-based policy formulation. What should be noticed is that existing risk management frameworks lack specialized, dynamically adaptive indicator systems capable of forecasting external risks specific to international engineering projects under the BRI. They tend to rely on static and traditional methods, which are ill-equipped to handle the dynamic and nonlinear nature of these transnational challenges. To address this gap, we have developed a machine learning-based early warning system. Drawing on a comprehensive dataset of 31 risk indicators across 155 BRI countries from 2013 to 2022, we constructed a stacked ensemble model optimized via Grid Search. The resulting ensemble model demonstrated exceptional predictive performance, achieving an R² value of 0.966 and outperforming all baseline methods significantly. By introducing a data-driven early-warning framework, our study contributes to more resilient infrastructure planning and improved risk governance mechanisms in the context of transnational cooperation initiatives. Full article

Background/Rationale: Transnational caregiving may be influenced by religious beliefs and cultural traditions that frame elder care as both a moral and religious obligation. While migration alters caregiving dynamics, religious teachings and cultural expectations remain central in guiding transnational caregiving practices. This study examines how Christian Nigerians who have immigrated to Canada navigate caregiving responsibilities within a transnational context, integrating their religion, cultural values, and the practical realities of crossing borders. Methods: This study employed a predominantly qualitative narrative approach, drawing on in-depth interviews with Nigerian Christian immigrants (N = 10) providing transnational care. Data collection involved a pre-interview survey and semi-structured interviews, providing the opportunity for participants to share their lived experiences. Thematic analysis was used to identify recurring themes related to the role of religion and culture in caregiving, ensuring a comprehensive exploration of participants’ perspectives. Findings: Caregiving is shaped by religious duty and cultural obligation, reinforced by biblical teachings and cultural values. Participants view elder care as a moral responsibility, tied to spiritual rewards and familial duty. Despite migration demands, family-based care remains preferred over institutional care, with social stigma attached to neglecting elders. Conclusions: Religion and culture remain integral to transnational caregiving practices, sustaining caregiving responsibilities despite migration-related realities. While religious teachings provide moral guidance and emotional support, cultural expectations reinforce caregiving as a collective and intergenerational duty. Policies and resources are needed that support transnational caregivers, ensuring they can fulfill their caregiving roles while adapting to new sociocultural environments. Policymakers should prioritize the implementation of policies and programs to support transnational caregivers, including family reunification measures, caregiving-related travel provisions, culturally tailored eldercare services, diaspora–local collaborations, organized caregiver support groups, and financial mechanisms such as tax incentives for remittances dedicated to elder care. Full article