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This paper considers queer studies in the global geopolitical hotspot of Asia, as well as how we can reimagine queer theories through both the Covid-19 pandemic and the intensified regional and global superpower competition and geopolitical tensions. It argues for a rethinking of queer studies through today's international relations and geopolitical complications in a sociological political economy. The aim is to connect critical studies with analyses of economic and social class structures, an approach that has been substantiated by the current crises, and to present an expanded queer mobility theory with two brief case studies (mini-critiques) of the current socioeconomic conditions facing marginalized people under Covid-19 and the changing geopolitical landscape. In so doing, this paper actively explores what queer studies can do and can be through the current historical turning point of the pandemic and geopolitical rivalry toward potential post-Covid socioeconomic revival and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pregnant Tree and the Goblin (2019) is a fantasy-documentary film directed by Kim Dong-ryung and Park Kyoung-tae. The film narrates the story of Park In-sun, a former sex worker in the United States military camp-town in South Korea. This paper closely analyzes four key scenes from the film – interview, field visit, revenge, and recalcitrance – to present two arguments. Firstly, the film illustrates the infliction of secondary violence by academia. I specifically examine scenes involving scholar figures’ interviews and field visits to disentangle the politics of knowledge production in the posthumous memorialisation. Secondly, this paper expands the sociocultural meaning of death, considering it as the starting point for imagining new ways of memorialising past violence. To achieve this, I demonstrate how the film’s brilliant delivery of creative and performative re-enactment of survivors’ dream images proposes recalcitrance as a generative analytical concept for memorialising difficult histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social class inequalities in accessing sport persist across the western world as a result of financial, social and cultural factors. Research to date largely explores how inequalities impact both accessing and practicing sport and physical activity – identifying patterns and differences between social classes but failing to identify the long-term implications such as how students exchange these as official qualifications and knowledge in Physical Education (PE) degrees. In this paper, we use Bourdieu's concepts of capital, and to a lesser extent habitus and field to theorise about sport as sites of socialisation that shapes the composition and volume of capital students enter PE degrees with. To date, research suggests the role socialisation and informal learning plays in shaping PE students' development of valued dispositions, but often overlooks the intersecting impact of social class. We draw on data from seventeen undergraduate students, studying a non-teacher training PE degree, in the UK. The data presented is selected from interviews exploring how the fields of family, school, extra-curricular sport and the geo-demography of the area they grew up in shaped their access to and practice of Sport/PA. Furthermore, it indicates class differences exist in both the key sites and agents of socialisation. We suggest this has ramifications, in relation to the volume and composition of capital PE students enter Higher Education (HE) with, highlighting the importance for PE staff in HE to be aware of this. Consequently, we demonstrate prior socialisation contributes to students' differing experiences of PE degrees, potentially shaping inequalities resulting from their capacity to exchange capital when studying PE at university. This paper encourages PE staff in universities to question the assumption parity of entry qualification results in all students entering HE with same access to knowledge and experiences valued in PE degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-demand work applications (ODWAs), a type of digital platforms (DPs), are technology-enabled intermediaries for gig workers. In this paper, we study these platforms and their impact on women belonging to the low socio-economic section in a developing economy. These women act as primary unpaid workers while being expected to make an economic contribution. Hence, they suffer from time scarcity where they need to find mechanisms to generate economic success from the limited time they have, in a largely informal economy. We employed the theoretical lens of affordances to delineate the affordances that are provided by the various features of ODWAs and their impact on life satisfaction of women. We conducted a mixed method study using interviews of 20 female gig workers, supplemented by a survey of 927 workers on one of the largest ODWAs in India. Our analysis points to the sense of identity and individuality that these platforms provide as well as lowering the market boundaries for greater inclusion. Our research is significant from both, the information systems and inclusion research perspectives, as it contributes to the theoretical understanding of the impact of DPs on breaking societal structures and providing avenues to marginalised sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of transnational and transcity education consumption suggests the increasingly important role of the capability to move in order to access quality schooling. Studies have examined the multidimensional inequalities underlying translocal education consumption. However, the role of mobility itself is not sufficiently understood. Two questions are rarely asked: (1) How is the capability to move acquired and practised to bring about translocal schooling consumption? and (2) How does the disparity in the capability to move restructure the established intergenerational capital transmission mechanism conceptualized by Bourdieu? This paper answers by theorizing a mobility-mediated, education-based intergenerational capital transmission mechanism. This framework is built upon a theoretical engagement among John Urry, Pierre Bourdieu, and Neil Smith. We substantiate this framework by examining a student migration regime in Sichuan, China. Attention is paid to the inclusion/exclusion of hypermobility-based schooling consumption regime. Empirical analysis is performed by the comparison of two social groups: (a) the middle-class households who employ mobility to chase after the footloose prime schooling resources and thus materialize their class reproduction strategy and (b) the immobile remainder who are stuck in a location deprived of quality schooling resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary expands on the problem of culturally imposed trauma described by Dorothy Evans Holmes. The focus on cultural trauma is both timely and necessary. I applaud Holmes’s attention to this important issue, and her clear articulation of its effects on intrapsychic and interpersonal life and the reluctance of psychoanalysis to engage with cultural trauma. My commentary explores two primary areas in an effort to further elaborate this issue: (a) The problem of defining cultural trauma as a legitimate type of trauma, and recognizing resistance to cultural trauma in psychology and psychoanalysis, and (b) the role of cultural context and narrative in addressing cultural trauma within psychoanalytic work. I aim to extend the range of questions concerning race, culture, and social class that remains to be examined in psychoanalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the debate on the sociology of political Islam, opposing interpretations centred on identity and on specific class alliances, the paper proposes a comparative analysis of the socio-geographies of mainstream Islamist parties in the post-Arab spring period in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. The paper shows that socio-geographies of political Islam are very pronounced, making unlikely an interpretation of Islamist parties as having a purely non class-based identity. These results challenge the conception of political Islam as a hegemonic ideology among Arab populations, as such an ideology would be built on their cultural heritage, repressed both by colonialism and by post-colonial elites. This conception denies the complexity of modern Arab societies, the importance of minorities, the diversity of social trajectories and the capacity of other movements to penetrate into some deprived rural or urban areas. This analysis neither validates conclusions that political Islam is an alliance between the deprived urban classes and the traditional bourgeoisie politically excluded from the ruling post-colonial classes. Rather, one finding is that the social grounds of Islamists are very dependent on the national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper rejects the cases made in recent volumes of this journal for incorporating political economy into youth studies. A brief review of young people's transitions from education into employment in the UK during and following the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns shows how youth transitions research engages routinely with changes and continuities in politics, state policies, the economy and labour markets. It is argued that the main weaknesses in current transitions research arise from our lack of an up-to-date class scheme within which to locate subjects' childhood origins and adult destinations. However, the paper illustrates how young researchers occupy a privileged position from which to identify emerging, consolidating and declining social classes. The conclusion is that youth studies must necessarily foreground young people, that it must engage with the outcomes of political and economic processes but has no need to 'dig deeper' into political economy for alleged underlying root causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have extensively explored the ideological stances of radical individuals, often concentrating on voting and policy preferences. This paper seeks to identify the foundational elements—such as antagonism, dogmatism, and populism—that constitute the ontological core of radical belief systems and gauge their prevalence in the general population. Utilizing data from the 2019 Belgian National Electoral Study, we adopt a person-centred approach to categorize individuals into various ideological profiles. Contrary to the prevailing assumption that radical individuals are "extreme" versions of mainstream voters, we provide evidence that they possess a distinct understanding of politics and society. We also found that political radicalism is not monolithic, comprising various nuanced and alternative non-mainstream configurations of beliefs. Additionally, we note that, compared to radical right voters, radical left voters are less inclined to embrace a black-and-white view of politics. Education, subjective social class, institutional trust, and powerlessness impact individuals' adherence to different belief systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the functions walls perform in gated communities from the standpoints of both gated community developers and their residents. It posits three types of walls and scrutinises the purpose for each. Drawing empirical data from face-to-face interviews with 11 developers and 20 residents drawn from two gated communities in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area in Ghana, the paper finds that, contrary to received wisdom, internal cluster walls in gated communities are used to segregate residents into different economic and social classes, often under the pretext of offering them different housing choices. It further casts doubts on the widely touted view that gated communities offer a better sense of security as residents express anxieties over suspected criminals living among them. The paper concludes by calling for a re-examination of several features of gated communities, including the meaning of the concept itself and the typologies that exist to bring out more of such nuances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent discussions in science, politics and society offer starting points for rethinking the approach to the wicked problem of educational inequality. In our paper, we want to do this by reviewing research, policy and practice in primary education in the Netherlands. Our reflections are first focused on the state of the art in research and the complex educational system from a theoretical perspective (section 2); next we focus on examples of how educational inequality and segregation in policy and practice are addressed in the Netherlands (section 3). Finally, we discuss the new methodological approaches that should be complemented with a new philosophical perspective on segregation and inequality in public policy (section 4). We develop new perspectives using the Netherlands as a specific case study, expecting our perspectives have a more general meaning and might also be useful in the fight against educational inequality and segregation elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a study of the Fundão dam collapse in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and it aims to analyze a widely used and rarely problematized concept in the corporate and, increasingly, in the public policy world: governance. Considering, in this case, the environmental governance that originated the disaster and the subsequent remediation governance, source of profound inequity, I try to extract its main problematics. In fact, the critical literature on governance systems points to the forced depoliticization of political decisions related to the transfer of public responsibilities to the private sector as the main issue. Based on the case, I intend to argue that the hegemony of techno-scientific solutions in eminently political contexts founds the aforementioned depoliticization, adding to and therefore aggravating the asymmetries of power already configured in terms of race and social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of the recent literature on the intellectual history of inequality, this paper offers the first survey and a tentative classification of the Italian literature addressing issues related to social mobility, from the late 19th century to the "Economic Miracle" of the 1950s. During these decades, the foremost Italian economists and statisticians (among others, Pareto, Gini, Einaudi and Pantaleoni) worked on issues highly related to the modern understanding of social mobility, from the role of inheritance to the intergenerational transmission of status. While reflecting the evolution and debates in Italian society, these authors also participated in a broader international debate, which should lead us to reconsider the supposed lack of interest in inequality among the economists of this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines social disadvantage in tourist sites through the lens of labour geography by focusing on the residential trajectories of a sample of workers in Barcelona (N = 8,651) over a decade (2008–2019). Contrasting with the common view that tourism growth brings prosperity to local communities, it suggests instead that buoyant destinations may be prone to leaving their workforces behind. Path analysis modelling reveals that tourism sector workers are at a higher risk of residential displacement. Our analysis unearths stratifications in such results, pointing to different tactics to cope with housing market pressure depending on sex, age, and nationality. Residential displacement and the self-imposed devaluation of housing conditions are introduced in this paper as key avenues leading to social exclusion. In this sense, we contribute to the concern of critical tourism geographies with the inequality and disadvantage ingrained in tourist space production, bridging to the domain of labour geography and social mobility. The city of Barcelona offers a template for other urban contexts that have been reliant on tourism as a major driver of economic growth in recent decades. Following the call for closer attention to labour in the debate on transitions to sustainability in tourism, our results hint at future research avenues that extend their interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines attitudes to classism in Irish education using a thematic analysis of social media conversations about social class between 2018 and 2022. Previous research indicates that Irish education systems are designed by and favour the dominant and ruling classes. However, few studies use the voice of the lived experience to explore the phenomenon. This article investigates Irish people's communication of class inequalities in education via the social media platform Twitter (X). Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis was employed to analyse and group the Tweets, with Dean's framework on communicative capitalism to guide the findings. This study indicates that social media has become a legitimate platform to challenge hegemony in education by creating online communities or collective identities in struggles against social inequalities in Ireland. Findings reveal that classism continues to prevail in Irish education, with working-class Tweets on the lived experiences of discrimination providing novel insights on emerging themes such as elitism, inequality of access and symbolic violence. Future research in this area needs to focus on the effects of social class on educational attainment, access, and participation in Irish settings. In particular, examining weaknesses in current structures to support working-class students, and possible grassroot interventions and policies to mitigate the impacts of social class on education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyze class divisions and exclusions limiting the potential of Polish Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). The authors discuss the tensions arising from the continuing class division in Polish society. Elements determining class stratification -- such as values, motivations, capitals, space of relations, and imaginaries are considered. This paper is based on a qualitative research conducted in 2019 in six various types of AFNs in Poland. The authors conclude that alternative networks operating in Poland are currently separating and polarizing. Given their increasing diversification in terms of the economic capital and other resources, their class-related cultural practices and specific imaginary, a clear distinction emerges between what can be recognized as élite (exclusive) initiatives and mass-scale (albeit less evident) alternative food practices. The well-embedded and largely invisible networks based on seemingly trivial daily practices are revealed as a distinctive category of AFNs marked by the lowest potential to generate class exclusion [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering intersectional feminism as a reference, the aim of this paper is to examine the discursive powers of the movie Aquarius for the representation of women. The emphasis is on Clara who is the protagonist of the plot. The study here seeks to understand how the cinematographic language represents Clara and how it interferes in the construction of this character. The methodology of this qualitative research consisted of both a bibliographic study and a movie analysis. The results show that the representation of the movie's main character does not resort to stereotypes commonly associated with women, nor with elderly women. From the perspective of intersectional feminism, the main character defines her place of speech as an empowered woman who is committed to progressive ideals. Despite being represented this way, the protagonist also succumbs to issues of hierarchy and power in her relationship with her maid, Ladjane. The discriminations and oppressions that permeate the experiences of these women mainly have to do with issues of gender, social class, and race. This shows the permanence of historical problems which intertwine in the representation of women in the movie Aquarius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aimed to explore: (1) challenges that people with mental illnesses (MIs) describe in engaging in smoking cessation, (2) challenges that mental health providers (MHPs) perceive that people living with MIs face, and (3) how the perceived challenges are similar and/or different from both perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain narrative data from 16 MHPs and 13 psychiatric inpatients with MIs. We identified themes purport societal, group, and individual factors may influence smoking cessation treatment engagement. The scope of the perceived challenges appeared varied in the narratives of MHPs as compared to those with MI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers migrant parenting as a dynamic project that entails interactions between social class, migration experiences, individual and collective beliefs, and transnational attachments. Previous research has examined migrant parenting predominantly concerning children's social mobility in the immigration country by using the acculturation framework or by comparing migrants with non-migrants. Recently, research has accounted for child rearing in transnational families with an emphasis on gendered parenting and role reversal among parents who take care of their children from a distance. This paper analyses parenting orientations among settled migrants who maintain close connections to their country of origin. Findings from in-depth interviews with mothers from Poland with different class backgrounds who raise their children in Germany highlight their varying migration experiences and structural conditions for child rearing. The analyses show how these mothers engage in building successful migration projects for themselves and their children, albeit with very diverse socio-cultural and economic resources that shape their child rearing, navigating between support of children's accommodation, transnational connections and ethnic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way in which young people's post-school intentions and pathways reflect their social background has been the subject of a good deal of research. However, much less attention has been paid to social differentiation in the amount and kind of career guidance information received by young people and its role in reinforcing or ameliorating social differentiation in transitions. This article contributes by examining the extent to which sources of information and guidance activities vary by social background and school social mix and the consequences of this variation for intentions to go on to higher education. The paper draws on data from a large-scale longitudinal study of young people in Ireland, the Growing Up in Ireland study. It finds that young people from more advantaged backgrounds are much more reliant on their parents as a source of information and advice, reflecting access to insider knowledge of the educational system, and are more likely to pay for private guidance services. In contrast, young people from less advantaged backgrounds and those attending schools with a concentration of working-class students are more reliant on school-based sources of information, though these resources are insufficient to boost their chances of making the transition to higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is based on a Keynote Lecture at the 2022 Colloquium of the Society for Educational Studies. It analyses the articles published in four leading journals in 2021 and compares these with the same journals 20 years earlier. Key findings include a considerable increase in authorship and multiple authorship and a very strong international dimension to authorship in current UK-based journals. Two-thirds of the papers were empirical, and by far the most common type of research design was qualitative interview studies, often of a very small-scale nature. Aspects of the teaching profession were the most common form of content, and there was also a focus on social class and multi-cultural issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing cultural diversity remains a challenge in secondary schools in Spain. In this paper, we approach cultural diversity from the standpoint of school counsellors, who are key professionals attending to immigrant pupils. Through the use of qualitative research techniques (semi-structured interviews and discussion groups), the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are identified by counsellors. The findings show the need to implement pupil-focused responses sensitive to their cultural identity and based on the collaboration of all agents involved. Likewise, the school is defined as a privileged setting in which to celebrate cultural diversity and the pivotal role that counsellors play in this process is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specialty coffee is increasingly produced and consumed as part of routine life in many cities in modern China, but the social and cultural shifts it has engendered yet to be systematically examined. By examining the intersections between social media and the operations of independent Chinese coffeehouses in the field of taste, this paper puts forward the idea of new taste among Chinese millennials, which comprises individual subjectivity, heterogeneous social relationships, and forms of class distinction. Using taste-oriented keyword searches on WeChat official accounts, 20 articles were returned and analyzed in terms of their textural and visual orientations to examine the processes underlying how taste is influenced in the consumption of specialty coffee in China. Findings suggest the importance of taste makers in this process, from routine creation of aesthetic ambience in the coffeehouses to the construction of affective taste spaces online, and the establishment of taste cycles from online to offline, which all underpin class privilege. Moreover, the emergence of an 'urban café community' appears to be characterized by specific forms of belonging resulting from a productive effect of the interplay between independent coffeehouses and consumers in everyday urban life in which a set of aesthetic boundaries reside. Second, these digital consumers distinguish themselves socially by positioning themselves as having a cosmopolitan taste grounded in coffee appreciation instead of merely consuming coffee for physiological benefits. These findings extend taste propositions through engagement of Chinese digital millennial consumers to uncover the underlying cultural classifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, individuals in precarious circumstances navigate numerous programs to supplement their food access. These programs operate in relation to stigmatizing discourses about poverty and food insecurity. This paper explores the sociomaterial meanings of food assistance, including SNAP, food pantries, and nonprofit food distribution. Using qualitative methods, we introduce the notion of entangled shame. This concept describes how discourses about poverty, material agencies, and (in)visibility collide to produce shame. Last, we identify methods of challenging and alleviating entangled shame. Results illuminate possibilities for centering dignity in food assistance programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work on working-class academics has highlighted recurring themes, such as micro-aggressions, imposter syndrome, liminality, exclusion, invisibility and habitus. These themes have been encapsulated in a number of metaphors, such as 'the ghost' and 'the phantom-limb', both of which connote absence, silence and marginalisation. Whilst these metaphors vividly describe the lived experiences of working-class academics, it is necessary to make room for a more positive space in which academics can construct alternative futures. It is necessary to develop a 'politics of critical hope'. A politics of critical hope seeks to move beyond linear narratives of victimhood, anger and heroic narratives of overcoming. This conceptual paper develops a critical hope that interrogates and repurposes dominant epistemologies in order to foster a bricolage of reparative and empathetic truths. It gestures towards an intersectional politics of academic work, compelling us to recognise that empowerment/ disempowerment is highly complex and stratified in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the growing body of work on precarious labor, immigration, and social gerontology by examining the racialization of precarious employment across the life course. In particular, the authors examine the impact of precarious employment and discrimination among racialized older immigrants in Canada. Racialized older immigrants are more likely to be disadvantaged by the effects of lifelong intersections of economic and social discrimination rooted in racialization, gender, ageism, and socio-economic status. Drawing from a narrative-photovoice project that focused on the life stories of older immigrants living in Quebec and British Columbia, this paper presents the in-depth stories and photographs of four participants to highlight how intersections of race, gender, age, immigration status, and ability shape and structure experiences of aging, labor market participation and caregiving relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing insights from an ethnographic study with two young refugee-background children, this paper examines the multiple contexts that influence their identity negotiations during their first three years of resettlement to the United States. The analysis aims to expand the growing literature on funds of identity (FOI) with specific attention to structural barriers that defund their FOIs. The findings are categorised in three intersecting themes: 1) transnational and translinguistic funds of identity, which are challenged by xenophobia, monolingualism and social class barriers; 2) funds of intercultural identity, which are jeopardised by racial and religious exclusion; and 3) funds of academic identity in the home which are threatened by social class challenges. The paper concludes with the implications of the analysis for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 appeared in Vietnam in January 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the new strain of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) around the globe on 1-3-2020. From 1-4-2020, Vietnam introduced social distancing to prevent the spread of the disease in society, affecting every social class, including 'internal' migrant workers who were often formerly farmers. This paper reports on research evaluating the impact of the pandemic on the internal migrant 'reserve army of labour' now working in industrial parks (IPs) and export processing zones (EPZs) in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Internal migrant workers make up the majority of employees, at 70% to 85.5% and this article offers a chance to evaluate Marxist categories of work, along with the point of view of the systems and social network approaches, to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts production activities at IPs & EPZs. The paper asks how management of workplaces in the face of the pandemic imposed coping strategies affecting levels of employment and lives of migrant workers at EPZs and IPs. Looking especially at migrant workers' strategies in facing the challenges of the pandemic, the use of Marx's "floating, latent and stagnant" categories of the "reserve army of labour" is reconsidered on the basis of information from available statistical data and from detailed interviews and observations in the Project "Improving the effectiveness of dialogue and collective bargaining in private enterprise and foreign directed investment enterprises in HCMC" under a grant from the Ho Chi Minh City Science and Technology Development Fund, 2020-22 - HCMFOSTED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Places outside the city have continuously been characterised by received knowledge about decline, youth outmigration, lifestyle discourses and a lack of opportunities for young people. This paper argues that greater clarification of young people's place-making practices counteracts received knowledge about the decline of the regions, discourses about the 'idyllic' communities and lack of access commonly understood to impact young people beyond the city. This paper further seeks to contribute to the academic discussion about non-urban spaces by focusing on regional places specifically, a key geography in the discussion about place. A focus group study with 62 individuals aged 16–28 years was designed to capture young people's place-making practices. Using Harris, A., and J. Wyn. (2009. "Young People's Politics and the Micro-Territories of the Local." Australian Journal of Political Science 44 (2): 327–344) concept 'micro-territories of the local' as a framework, the analysis draws on gender and social class to interrogate young people's place-making projects. The findings indicate that regional towns represent a unique constellation of people, resources and history that highlights the specific place-making projects of young people in their teens and into their 20s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to extend research on parental involvement in education and its relationship to social class and inequalities. We do so by developing a new theoretical framework that helps us to better understand and explain cross-national and cross-cultural differences in how parental involvement in education differs across socio-economic groups. We propose that giving greater analytical attention to the role of institutional factors, cultural processes, and the underlying class and economic structures of particular countries is important for understanding the social mechanisms underpinning patterns of parental involvement in education. Once this framework has been developed, we identify promising directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its fuzziness, the term middle class has become increasingly attractive in the past two decades, not only among social scientists and market analysts but also as a term of self-description employed by upwardly mobile individuals. Research on middle classes in the Global South, and especially in Africa, confronts us with particular challenges. First, while conventional class theories take the nation-state as the obvious framework for defining class boundaries, African examples point to the importance of sub-national (as well as transnational) dimensions of class formation. Secondly, marriage ties and kin relations of upwardly mobile individuals in African societies often cut across class boundaries, resulting in 'multi-class' families and competing loyalties. The paper addresses these challenges by looking at the emergence of a national middle class in Ghana. More specifically, we discuss how social mobility and class formation play out in two different regions of what is today Ghana: a coastal region that since the seventeenth century has been drawn into global networks and was highly stratified by the end of the nineteenth century; and a marginalized savannah region with an egalitarian society until chieftaincy and education were introduced by the British colonizers in the early twentieth century. These regional disparities and resulting sub-national memberships intersect with the emergence of a national middle class. However, we argue that despite distinct regional trajectories, we are currently witnessing a certain 'synchronisation' of social stratification and the formation of a broader middle class that understands itself not only in regional, but national terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only 1 in 10 people with disabilities can access assistive devices, underlining the critical need for low-cost assistive products. This paper describes the design evolution of a manual user-operated standing wheelchair (SWC), translating from prototype to product. The SWC design has been refined over 5 years through multiple iterations based on comments from user trials. The SWC product, Arise, provides standing functionality, facile outdoor mobility, affordability, customisability, and is aesthetically pleasing. A one-time fitting and training ensure optimal effort for operation, correct posture, and comfortable user experience. The SWC accommodates users of different sizes and body weights (up to 110 kg) and minimises user effort with the use of a gas spring. Incorporating discrete adjustments enables customisation while retaining the advantages of mass manufacturing, which is necessary for ensuring affordability. The SWC has been field-tested and well received by over 100 wheelchair users, and Arise was launched recently by the industry partner. It should be noted that RESNA cautions on the use of any standing device without medical consultation. Nevertheless, with appropriate dissemination and awareness, it is anticipated that the affordable SWC product, Arise, will immensely benefit the eligible users and make a difference in their quality of life. Provides standing functionality, outdoor mobility, affordability and customisability Accommodates users of different sizes and body weights in a mass-manufacturable design Ergonomic design reduces net user effort during sit-to-stand, stand-to-sit activity Design iterated and refined based on feedback from over 100 user trials [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, the label "economic migrant" has become widely used in British political discourse. Yet it has not been subject to sustained scrutiny. Those that have considered how it is used have predominantly focused on its relationship to asylum. In this paper, I build on such work by examining some of the core ways the "economic migrant" is conceptualized in British political discourse. Based on an analysis of Hansard data and select British newspapers between 1983 and 2021, this article establishes three common formulations of the label. Then, drawing on work related to Man, race, class and the economy, it argues that in different ways – in part, depending on different policy contexts – these usages produce distinct class-based forms of racialization that are grounded in ideas of economic otherness. The "economic" in "economic migrant" plays a central to justifying inclusion and exclusion on classed, racialized terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China does not permit dual nationality, meaning migrants in Australia must evaluate the benefits of Chinese versus Australian citizenship. Decisions about competing citizenship statuses are informed not only by this prohibition of dual nationality but also by individuals' classed positions. By comparing the choices of trade skilled migrants from different backgrounds in China, this paper shows that homeland social class is a key factor in decision-making processes, particularly the uniquely Chinese spatial expression of class manifested through the hukou system and the differential local citizenship this entails. An analysis of representative cases illustrates the complexities of evaluating memberships acquired through migration and nested memberships resulting from local citizenship with China. People from different backgrounds and, importantly, different places in China's socio-spatial hierarchy value their Chinese legal status differently. The differential effects, both material and symbolic, of membership in or exclusion from urban centres in China form a critical part of individuals' calculations, over and above the national-level membership within which local hukou citizenship is nested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of the 'residualisation' of social housing, in terms of residents' income, employment status and class relative to the rest of the population, is one of the best known trends of the housing system in the UK and in many other nations over the past half century. The idea of residualisation and the presumption of its inevitability have become widely accepted, and formed a negative frame for social housing policy. However Pearce and Vine (2014) have shown that in terms of income, the residualisation of social housing in England stopped in 1991. This paper confirms and extends that work using multiple published data sources. These show consistent evidence of convergence over the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s between social tenants and the English national averages in terms of not only income but also employment status and class. Potential explanations, including the restructuring of housing markets, demographic change, and changing labour markets, are briefly explored. Most recently, there some signs that deresidualisation itself may have stopped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the perception of "relatives" during the rehabilitation of young adults with severe acquired brain injury (SABI). This longitudinal qualitative study followed eight young adults with a SABI from hospital discharge to a year and a half after discharge. The design encompassed professional records, interviews, and surveys, including a name generator list completed by the young adults and focus group interviews with both their families and professionals. We apply a sociological theoretical framework concerning friendship, and we employ social network analysis (SNA) methodology to capture, visualise, and analyse the young adults' significant social relations. Social relations engaged as relatives during rehabilitation are to a large extent determined by the perceptions of professionals and the parents of the young adult. These perceptions contain a limited number of social relations, with priority given to biological and juridical ties. This might reflect the reduced social support available for the young adult, who initially had a much larger social network. The authors suggest a professional rethinking of who "relatives" are as well as considering these social ties as dynamic. Rehabilitation professionals must be aware of and pay attention to differing perceptions that exist as to who qualifies as significant social relations in order to reconsider the practical implementation of relative involvement. The perception of who relatives are during the rehabilitation process should be reconsidered and extended to include who the young adult perceive as significant social relations. Relatives are not a fixed entity and should be considered dynamically throughout the rehabilitation process. Social relations of the young adult must to a larger extent be considered during rehabilitation to prevent social isolation in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity is a complex concept that can be informed by various factors, involving biological, psychological, experiential, and social influences. Specifically, one's social identity refers to the ways in which individuals can adopt attributes from established collective categories, like cultural identities, ethnic identities, gender identities, and class identities, amongst others. Social identity can encompass unique and diverse interactions at an individual level, known as micro-identities, that may be selectively expressed, hidden, or downplayed, contingent on distinct sociocultural settings. However, the formation of social identity is recurrently defined in opposition to perceptions of the Other, which can entail adverse paradigms of marginalisation, stigma, and discrimination. Although this theory of Otherness has been developed across different fields, particularly sociology, it may be important in psychiatric contexts as it can engender inherent risk factors and mental health inequalities. Consequently, this paper seeks to bring attention towards these issues, exploring the construction of Otherness and its detrimental outcomes for psychiatry, such as systemic discrimination and disparities in therapeutic support, alongside recommended initiatives to mitigate against the effects of Otherness. This may require multifactorial approaches that include cultural competency training, interventions informed by micro-identities and intersectionality, patient advocacy, and structural changes to mental health policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of sport as mediator between social class and personal merit through the figure of Epeios in Homer's Iliad. Dated around 800 BCE, the poem provides us with the first complete account of an athletic event in Western literature, the Funeral Games for Patroklos (henceforth: the Games). Among the noble warlords competing at the Games is a soldier of obscure background called Epeios who wins in boxing but loses in weight-throwing. His performance initiates a novel discourse on the philosophy of sport, as his athletic prowess is not concomitant with martial distinction. Introduced into the Iliad through sport and not war, Epeios later achieves renown as the carpenter who built the Trojan Horse. Through close readings of all relevant texts, this paper argues that Epeios' mini-epic articulates the Problematik of sport as a criterion for meritocracy by reevaluating the social gap between him and his aristocratic fellow-contestants. At the same time, this analysis explicates how the figure of Epeios foreshadows the change in strategy that will bring forth the fall of Troy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis uses a unique series of surveys of school students in Scotland, covering the whole of the second half of the twentieth century, to investigate whether educational reforms can reduce inequalities of educational progress and attainment, and the role of school history in mediating these intentions. This period included the policy reforms that ended selection for public-sector schools between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. Information on school attended enables the analysis to investigate whether and how the histories of schools interact with national policy. The main conclusions are that inequality of attainment and progression fell throughout the half century, but that the change was slow. Although policy may have created the conditions under which this equalisation took place, it probably was not its main cause, and the ways in which policy had its impact was modified by schools' histories. The paper also illustrates the ways in which a series of surveys can be used to understand social change, and the compromises which have to be made to achieve comparability over a long period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes over time in social-class inequality of educational attainment have been shown by previous research to depend on whether attainment is measured absolutely or relatively. The pioneering work in this respect by Bukodi and Goldthorpe found that inequality has fallen when attainment is measured absolutely (for example, as the percentage completing full secondary schooling) but has changed less when a relative measure is used (for example, reaching the top quarter of the distribution of attainment). Although absolute measures remain intrinsically interesting, insofar as they represent cognitive or cultural accomplishment, relative measures are more relevant for understanding the role of education in allocating people competitively to employment. Implicit in this previous research, as in much research on the connection between education and social mobility, is that the society over which the relative standing of qualifications is measured is the same as that in which they are used to gain social rewards, such as a job. When labour markets operate across educational borders, this assumption might be open to question. The present analysis investigates the interpretation of absolute and relative educational inequality by comparing England, Scotland and Wales, which have distinct education systems but a common labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pandemic has radically shifted how society is organised, with increased work from home, home-schooling, and intensification of online presence, all with specific (un)intended implications on paid and unpaid care work. These implications, like those of other crises, are gendered and manifest along sex, age, disability, ethnicity/race, migration status, religion, social class, and the intersections between these inequalities. While many studies have identified these unequal and negative impacts, and point to significant care-related inequalities, the specific contribution of this paper is a different one, namely to point towards inspiring practices as better stories of and in the care domain during the pandemic. The aim is to make these better stories visible and to think about these as ways forward to mitigate the unequal impacts of COVID-19 and its policy responses. Theoretically, the approach is based on 'better stories', as developed by Dina Georgis (2013, Better Story. Queer Affects from the Middle East, New York: State University). The paper uses both quantitative and qualitative data, gathered from the EU27, Iceland, Serbia, Turkey, and the UK, within the EU H2020 project RESISTIRÉ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between risk and inequality has become a key area of research and theoretical debate in sociology and risk studies more broadly. My aim in this paper is to explore the role culture plays in the (re)production of inequalities of risk exposure. More specifically, I examine the ways cultural systems shape and animate judgements about acceptable standards of risk exposure for different groups within a society. The case study examines divergent policy judgements about acceptable risk exposure to road accident injury and death between a group of temporary visa workers and all other private passengers in Singapore. A key objective of the paper is to demonstrate the conceptual and empirical utility of Mary Douglas' cultural perspective for studying interconnections between risk and inequality. In particular, how taking up the problem of 'risk acceptability' is an effective way of approaching and studying the ways risk and inequality operate as mutually constitutive relations. In the discussion I show that what counts as risk and how acceptable or not risk is judged to be depends on the cultural system of classification used and the stratified social order it (re)produces. In the conclusion I consider the broader utility and significance of this critical approach for studying relations between risk and inequality through the problem of risk acceptability. A utility that may take on a particular significance in the present time of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the professional practice of psychology the code of ethics characterizes what is morally right or wrong, by means of a set of principles, values, and standards of conduct. While there are numerous international mental health organizations that incorporate ethical guidelines such as the APA and EFPA; these codes still fall short in providing guidelines for psychologists working in non-western cultures, especially when there are no universally adopted and valid cross-cultural ethics codes. This paper explores various challenges psychologists in the Arab region face when using a western code which does not reflect the values and traditions of their culture. A comparison of several ethical codes from different Arab countries is presented, with a focus on challenging areas of interest such as confidentiality, informed consent and multiple relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about social class and initial teacher education, specifically the perspectives and experiences of those from lower socio-economic groups in an initial teacher education programme in Ireland. It draws on a qualitative study employing in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 'working class' student teachers, exploring their backgrounds and educational experiences, motivations to become a teacher, and experiences in initial teacher education. A key finding concerns participants' highly classed desired future teaching identity: they expressed a strong desire to be a relatable and inclusive teacher, which they conceptualised as being approachable, caring and supportive of all pupils. To varying degrees, they felt that becoming this type of teacher could be achieved in part through 'sharing the (classed) self' with their pupils. Building on research about diversifying the teaching population internationally, and critical arguments for and against 'ethnic matching' approaches, the findings are examined from the perspective of 'class matching' as well as teacher self-disclosure with respect to social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counterurbanization tends to be associated with the mid-upper and upper classes moving from cities to rural areas. However, the persistent desire for housing, the permeation of the neoliberal model throughout all society based on the principle of universal consumption, and the exhaustion many people feel with urban life, have ended up relativizing the traditional correspondence between social class, capital, and habitus. This paper describes the narratives of projective spatial preferences in rural areas among different social classes in Temuco, one of the most important cities in Chile. After analyzing 30 interviews, the results point to a spatial preference for the rural areas of the city in all social classes, which in turn is sustained in the value placed on the social isolation that suburban areas offered, a feature that is appreciated even more than the natural amenities provided by these places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008 Joe Calzaghe (from Wales) fought Bernard Hopkins (from the USA) in a light-heavyweight boxing match. Prior to the fight Hopkins had taunted Calzaghe with the refrain that he would never lose to a white boy. This paper assesses the interplay of discourses surrounding race and nation in the build-up to the contest between the two boxers. The analysis highlights how simplistic binaries are used to perpetuate notions of difference and considers how this accentuates divides in contested racial and national terrains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out-of-pocket health payments as a means of financing health services are a cause of concern among households in low and middle-income countries. They prevent households from accessing health care services, can disrupt households' living standards by reducing consumption of other basic needs and push households into poverty. Previous studies have reported geographical variations in impoverishing effects of out-of-pocket health payments. Yet, we know relatively little about spatial effects on impoverishing effects of health payments. This paper assesses the factors associated with impoverishing effects of health payments and quantifies the role of districts spatial effects on impoverishment in Malawi. The paper uses a cross sectional integrated household survey data collected from April 2016 to April 2017 among 12447 households in Malawi. Impoverishing effect of out-of-pocket health payments was calculated as the difference between poverty head count ratio before and after subtracting health payments from total household consumption expenditures. We assessed the factors associated with impoverishment and quantified the role of spatial effects using a spatial multilevel model. About 1.6% and 1.2% of the Malawian population were pushed below the national and international poverty line of US$1.90 respectively due health payments. We found significant spatial variations in impoverishment across districts with higher spatial residual effects clustering in central region districts. Higher socio-economic status (AOR=0.34, 95% CI=0.22-0.52) decreased the risk of impoverishment whereas hospitalizations (AOR=3.63, 95% CI 2.54-5.15), chronic illness (AOR=1.56, 95% CI=1.10-1.22), residency in rural area (AOR=2.03, 95% CI=1.07-4.26) increased the risk of impoverishment. Our study suggests the need to plan financial protection programs according to district specific needs and target the poor, residents of rural areas and those with chronic illnesses. Policy makers need to pay attention to the importance of spatial and neighborhood effects when designing financial protection programs and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an increasing number of children diagnosed with Autism-Spectrum-Disorder in Canada, this paper focuses on how their mothers, as Asian immigrant women, experience the process of diagnosis and learn to parent their children. By taking two Asian (Korean and Chinese) mothers' critical personal narratives as major data sources, this paper aims to explore the diagnosis process of Autism-Spectrum-Disorder through a sociocultural lens on the intersectionality of (im)migrants and their cultural competence, and argues that their identity (re)construction and learning for parenting take place at the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and disability. This paper highlights possible implications for everyone involved in this 'medical' process, in the context of Canadian or other similar multicultural societies. Asian immigrant mothers usually have to deal with children with Autism-Spectrum-Disorder (ASD) and they have bitter experience of mistreatment tied to race, gender and class. This study reveals how Asian immigrant mothers struggled in their integration to Canadian society as well as their experiences of denial into Canada's medical system. The stories of these two women shed lights on the social and cultural aspects of immigrant mothers' learning strategies, including how they utilize accessible resources and networks for their children's treatment and diagnosis. This paper suggests that policymakers need to consider the social and cultural aspects of diagnosis in immigrant families to better fit their needs and provide them appropriate medical and social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper depicts two great scholars who respected one another academically and culturally, moved in similar circles, and had in common a passionate though rational interest in human sciences and Arabic-Islamic Studies: Samuel Stern and Giorgio Levi Della Vida. In the first section, Fitzroy Morrissey and the author outline the intellectual and cultural life of Levi Della Vida, his critical but independent approach to faith and religion, the Italian intellectual environment that forged his character, and the Jewish cultural environment that surrounded him during his American exile. In the second section, the author recounts her personal encounters with Samuel Stern at Levi Della Vida's house at Via Po in Rome. Stern had already begun his research on the Islamic city. Though separated by an age gap of almost thirty-five years, Stern came to Levi Della Vida for guidance. The article depicts the long meetings between the two scholars and their scholarly discussions, based on the author's reminiscences. The final sections deal with Stern's lecture at the international colloquium at All Souls College, Oxford in 1965 and his chapter in The Islamic City (1970). The paper concludes by discussing the influence of Stern's work on future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen an increase in the visibility of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) children in the public sphere. Jack Halberstam [(2018). Trans: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability (Vol. 3). University of California Press] is very critical of middle-class parents of TGD children, arguing that much of their activism is based on a normalizing model of individual rights as opposed to a more transformative activism that might de-stabilize gender-power systems that are restrictive for everyone. Following this pronouncement, this paper takes up the opportunity to inquire further into the everyday negotiations of middle-class parents of TGD children. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with twelve middle-class parents of TGD children aged 5–13 in Ireland, this paper provides in-depth insight into the classed, precarious, gendered, disruptive and arduous nature of parents' work as they negotiated schools and laboured to follow a child-led parenting philosophy amidst the judgement of others and rigidly gendered worlds. Ultimately, this paper's argument is two-fold – it alerts us to social class inequality in parenting TGD children but it also complicates the figure of the middle-class parent of a TGD child, offering in-depth insight into the shape and effects of child-led parenting with TGD children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]