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This paper examines the possible relationship between religious education and social justice. A consideration of what it is that education in the public sphere should seek to achieve, in a normative sense, is followed by an explanation of how we conceptualise social justice in this paper. This leads us to be able to explain why the relationship between teacher and child or young person is significant and why it is insufficient to conceptualise religious education only in terms of knowledge. Instead, we propose that the teacher's first responsibility when beginning any course of study is to bring the child to attend to their experience and that of their wider community. We argue that curriculum cannot be made in isolation of the context of the child and that education is not something that takes place in abstraction. Rather, it requires the teacher to be attentive to this particular child, the one who is here now, and in this particular place. Having begun to set out the educational position of our argument, we show how this is working practically guided by a Locally Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education: Living Difference IV, in religious education taught in a school in an area of high deprivation in the southeast of Hampshire. UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to social protection in old age is crucial and yet contingent upon negotiations between the social structures of the welfare states and the personal networks within which individuals are embedded. International migration, changing family dynamics, and the transformation of care and other welfare policies in the global North make it challenging for older migrants to negotiate social protection. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with first-generation older Turkish migrants in London and 13 semi-structured interviews with professional service providers for the community, the paper aims to investigate the assemblages of formal and informal social protection in the lives of older migrants. Findings indicate the complexity in accessing informal social protection and the navigation of formal care support in the UK for first generation older Turkish migrants and the contingency of access to formal care services on informal support networks for participants. It has been demonstrated that built infrastructure and policies aimed at older adults have great influence on assemblages of care, highlighting the need for more age-friendly and integrated policies to facilitate access to social protection for diverse groups of older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to our understanding of volunteer management by charting some important challenges associated with the governance of one of the UK's largest timebanking networks. While timebanking is often treated as a form of volunteering, many timebank advocates are keen to distinguish it sharply from traditional volunteering. We suggest that this tension generates a fundamental 'performance paradox' in the management of timebanks in the voluntary sector. We draw on political discourse theory to characterise and evaluate associated challenges, suggesting that, when viewed against a host of context-specific organisational and policy pressures, the progressive potential of timebanking cannot be realised as a distinct community economy without adequate support. Instead of taking up a position alongside more traditional forms of volunteering, timebanking is more likely to be subsumed by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a mixed methods quantitative and qualitative approach to capture fully the measurable and less tangible social impacts of transport projects on local people and communities. The approach was used to assess the potential social impacts of a strategic road by-pass project case study in a deprived region of Wales in the UK. The project specifically aimed to stimulate local economic growth and regeneration in the local areas it serves. In a 'before and after' case study, we combined fine-grained, GIS-based spatial analysis of secondary datasets with qualitative participative exercises with the local residents of the five communities living adjacent to the road, and interviews with professional local stakeholders. This mixed methods approach significantly enhanced understanding of both the social benefits and disbenefits of the road project. It helped to reveal local concerns that would not otherwise have been apparent from secondary dataset analysis alone. The qualitative studies were also successful in bringing to the table new 'hard to reach' voices that had not been heard through the formal consultation and public engagement process. The study revealed that the social benefits accruing to local people from the project could have been significantly enhanced, whilst a number of its locally occurring negative social impacts could have been avoided had social assessment been employed earlier in the decision processes concerning its routing and design. Recommendations to improve the practice and uptake of social assessments at the option appraisal, project design mitigation and post evaluation stages of transport projects are included in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Research is beginning to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on people with pre-existing mental health conditions. Our paper addresses a lack of in-depth qualitative research exploring their experiences and perceptions of how life has changed at this time. Methods: We used qualitative interviews (N = 49) to explore experiences of the pandemic for people with pre-existing mental health conditions. In a participatory, coproduced approach, researchers with lived experiences of mental health conditions conducted interviews and analysed data as part of a multi-disciplinary research team. Results: Existing mental health difficulties were exacerbated for many people. People experienced specific psychological impacts of the pandemic, struggles with social connectedness, and inadequate access to mental health services, while some found new ways to cope and connect to the community. New remote ways to access mental health care, including digital solutions, provided continuity of care for some but presented substantial barriers for others. People from black and ethnic minority (BAME) communities experienced heightened anxiety, stigma and racism associated with the pandemic, further impacting their mental health. Conclusion: There is a need for evidence-based solutions to achieve accessible and effective mental health care in response to the pandemic, especially remote approaches to care. Further research should explore the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on people with pre-existing mental health conditions. Particular attention should be paid to understanding inequalities of impact on mental health, especially for people from BAME communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social sector planning requires rational approaches where community needs are identified by referring to relative deprivation among localities and resources are allocated to address inequalities. Geographical information system (GIS) has been widely argued and used as a base for rational planning for equal resource allocation in social sectors around the globe. Devolution of primary health care is global strategy that needs pains taking efforts to implement it. GIS is one of the most important tools used around the world in decentralization process of primary health care. This paper examines the scope of GIS in social sector planning by concentration on primary health care delivery system in Pakistan. The work is based on example of the UK's decentralization process and further evidence from US. This paper argues that to achieve benefits of well informed decision making to meet the communities' needs GIS is an essential tool to support social sector planning and can be used without any difficulty in any environment. There is increasing trend in the use of Health Management Information System (HMIS) in Pakistan with ample internet connectivity which provides well established infrastructure in Pakistan to implement GIS for health care, however there is need for change in attitude towards empowering localities especially with reference to decentralization of decision making. This paper provides GIS as a tool for primary health care planning in Pakistan as a starting point in defining localities and preparing locality profiles for need identification that could help developing countries in implementing the change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the origins and main strands of recent debates within the international development community regarding the tensions between increasing aid allocation to so-called 'fragile states' and growing domestic and international pressure for donors to demonstrate measurable results and returns on their investments. With particular reference to the UK context, the paper examines how the confluence of these two agendas is being viewed, at least publicly, and some of the main arguments that have been put forward about why they may be difficult to pursue simultaneously. It asks whether or not it is feasible that donors will explicitly seek to address and resolve the apparent trade-offs between these two agendas, and concludes that in both international and domestic political arenas, 'good enough' aid effectiveness, or a more nuanced, 'developmentised' understanding of value for money, are unlikely to become palatable or politically viable any time soon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities in Britain with other ethnic minorities to ask the questions 'are Muslims different?' and 'is their behaviour changing over time?'. We look at the gender gap in education, age at marriage, marriage from the source country and female employment. In all these dimensions we find that Muslim communities are different but also that there is a convergence in behaviour. This is because those born in Britain generally differ markedly in behaviours from those born in the country of origin, but also because there is change within both the UK- and foreign-born communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme precipitation is projected to intensify with warming, but how this will manifest locally through time is uncertain. Here, we exploit an ensemble of convection-permitting transient simulations to examine the emerging signal in local hourly rainfall extremes over 100-years. We show rainfall events in the UK exceeding 20 mm/h that can cause flash floods are 4-times as frequent by 2070s under high emissions; in contrast, a coarser resolution regional model shows only a 2.6x increase. With every degree of regional warming, the intensity of extreme downpours increases by 5-15%. Regional records of local hourly rainfall occur 40% more often than in the absence of warming. However, these changes are not realised as a smooth trend. Instead, as a result of internal variability, extreme years with record-breaking events may be followed by multiple decades with no new local rainfall records. The tendency for extreme years to cluster poses key challenges for communities trying to adapt. Climate projections at km-scale show that local hourly precipitation extremes in the UK become 4-times more frequent by 2070, while they do not intensify gradually with warming, but tend to cluster in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The duration, intensity and frequency of hydrological droughts are predicted to increase significantly over the 21st century globally, threatening the long-term stability of lotic communities. In this paper we examine the recovery and recolonization of macroinvertebrate taxa in ephemeral and near perennial reaches of the River Lathkill (UK) after a supra-seasonal drought event. Following flow resumption, species accumulation (recolonization) occurred rapidly over a 4-month period, with a steady increase observed thereafter. Taxonomic richness was significantly higher in the section with near perennial flow after the first month of the study than the naturally ephemeral reach. Serial correlation was observed in the near perennial section but not in the upstream ephemeral reach. Serial correlation in the near perennial section may reflect: (1) the ongoing process of recovery or (2) the macroinvertebrate community following a new ecological trajectory. Our results suggest that supra-seasonal droughts may cause initial reductions in lotic diversity during stream desiccation events but may re-set ecological succession and/or temporarily provide new ecological niches, thereby supporting increased taxonomic diversity when the full range of hydrological conditions are considered. Quantifying the recovery of ecological communities following supra-seasonal drought can provide information to help develop ecologically effective conservation and management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the UK, together with numerous countries in the world, moves towards a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to be able to predict trends in sufficient time to limit the pressure faced by the National Health Service (NHS) and maintain low hospitalisation levels. In this study, we explore the use of an epidemiological compartmental model to devise a periodic adaptive suppression/intervention policy to alleviate the pressure on the NHS. The proposed model facilitates the understanding of the progression of the specific stages of COVID-19 in communities in the UK including: the susceptible population, the infected population, the hospitalised population, the recovered population, the deceased population, and the vaccinated population. We identify the parameters of the model by relying on past data within the period from 1 October 2020 to 1 June 2021. We use the total number of hospitalised patients and the fraction of those infected who are being admitted to hospital to develop adaptive policies: these modulate the recommended level of social restriction measures and realisable vaccination target adjustments. The analysis over the period 1 October 2020 to 1 June 2021 demonstrates our periodic adaptive policies have the potential to reduce the hospitalisation by 58% on average per month. In a further prospective analysis over the period August 2021 to May 2022, we analyse several future scenarios, characterised by the relaxation of restrictions, the vaccination ineffectiveness and the gradual decay of the vaccination-induced immunity within the population. In addition, we simulate the surge of plausible variants characterised by an higher transmission rate. In such scenarios, we show that our periodic intervention is effective and able to maintain the hospitalisation rate to a manageable level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholders in natural resource management decisions are also multifaceted individuals and members of communities; as such, they bring complex histories, experiences, values, aspirations, and relationships to public participation processes. When these processes fail to take this social context into account, multiple problems can result, including a perceived lack of process trustworthiness; perceived focus on issues that seem immaterial or irrelevant; failure to equitably represent and take account of diverse voices; and failure to engage participants in productive dialogue. In this article we evaluate the Community Voice Method (CVM) as a way of addressing those problems by better situating public participation in place. CVM is a mixed-method approach to public participation in which stakeholders are interviewed and the interview data is presented through a film, which is then screened at public meetings to catalyze dialogue. We draw on 14 years of CVM projects addressing natural resource management issues in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean. Through an overview of nine projects and their results, and more in-depth consideration of three, we elucidate how this method fosters trustworthy, relevant, representative, and productive public participation that has resulted in community capacity-building, institutional capacity-building, and stakeholder-guided policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, a significant effect on individuals worldwide, and it is clear that minority communities including the Sikh community have been particularly affected by the virus. The current study assessed the impact of the pandemic in a sample of 44 British Sikhs across 11 virtual focus groups. Three main themes emerged including making meaningful connections, struggling to adjust and the organisation of gurdware (Sikh places of worship) in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings highlight that faith may promote collective action for collective healing especially during mass trauma, with specific insight into what this may entail for the Sikh community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some social settings such as households and workplaces, have been identified as high risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Identifying and quantifying the importance of these settings is critical for designing interventions. A tightly-knit religious community in the UK experienced a very large COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, reaching 64.3% seroprevalence within 10 months, and we surveyed this community both for serological status and individual-level attendance at particular settings. Using these data, and a network model of people and places represented as a stochastic graph rewriting system, we estimated the relative contribution of transmission in households, schools and religious institutions to the epidemic, and the relative risk of infection in each of these settings. All congregate settings were important for transmission, with some such as primary schools and places of worship having a higher share of transmission than others. We found that the model needed a higher general-community transmission rate for women (3.3-fold), and lower susceptibility to infection in children to recreate the observed serological data. The precise share of transmission in each place was related to assumptions about the internal structure of those places. Identification of key settings of transmission can allow public health interventions to be targeted at these locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting global targets that maintain temperatures at 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels while adapting to the growing impacts of climate change requires significant and rapid societal change. Within this context, there has been growing interest in building community resilience to shocks and stressors and as a forward-looking process. Yet while there has been extensive attention to conceptual aspects, there has been much less on how this can be achieved in practice. This research worked with three communities in Scotland (UK) regularly exposed to flooding and other integrated challenges to learn from action about community resilience building. A carefully developed four-tiered transdisciplinary approach was applied that included: relationship-building; enhancing capacities to work with interconnections; enabling processes; and supportive action-oriented research. The findings of the analysis of the system dynamics that were occurring during the resilience-building process highlight that it is a complex and messy social process. Yet, it also shows that if quality and sufficient quantity of support and time to help surface and deliberate on underlying assumptions about communities and change is provided, it can be possible to stimulate emergence of beneficial reinforcing social dynamics that begin to support collaborative and systemic action. To further advance know how about resilience building, much greater focus will be needed on the 'how' of resilience. This, in turn, will require new framings of, and approaches for, community resilience and new framings of research, knowledge and knowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cleckley asserted in 1941 that psychopathic personalities are found in the community as well as prisons. Subtypes of abnormal personality may be identifiable in the general population using contemporary measures of psychopathy. Methods: Cluster analysis of PCL:SV scores using the four-facet model with a representative sample of 624 adults aged 16-74 years living in households interviewed in the second of a two-phase survey in Great Britain. Results: Analysis confirmed an optimum 5-cluster solution and existence in the general population of prototypical or criminal psychopaths, non-psychopathic habitual criminals, and 'successful psychopaths'. Two additional clusters were identified, one uniquely characterised by impulsive/irresponsible (Facet 3) items and the other by social failure associated with low scores on each facet. Conclusions: The study confirmed previously hypothesised and two new subtypes of psychopathy within the general population. This prototypical classification may compliment existing typologies during clinical assessment following further refinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on my experience of conducting an ethnographic study with the Kurdish community in a town in the North East of England I offer a reflection on interviewing three retired cigarette smugglers, who operated in Greece in 2002 and 2003. A reflection on my experiences in this research process is provided with a reference to the absolute and relative value of the (data from the) interviews conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prevent policy was introduced in the UK in 2003 as part of an overall post 9/11 counter-terrorism approach (CONTEST), with the aim of preventing the radicalisation of individuals to terrorism. In 2015, the Prevent policy became a legal duty for public sector institutions, and as such, its reach has extended much deeper into society. This article, based on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork—including interviews, focus groups and participant observations—seeks to uncover and analyse the function of surveillance at the heart of the Prevent strategy. Contrary to official denials, surveillance forms an essential feature of the Prevent strategy. It regards radicalisation as part of an overall conveyor belt to terrorism, and thus attempts to control the future by acting in the present. The article shows how the framing of the terror threat in the 'war on terror', as an 'Islamic threat', has afforded a surveillance infrastructure, embedded into Muslim communities, which has securitised relations with local authorities. Its intelligence products, as well as the affective consequences of surveillance, have served to contain and direct Muslim political agency. Such an analysis uncovers the practice of Islamophobia at the heart of the Prevent strategy, which accounts for its surveillance tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]