Public discourse narratives: from 'Secret Aid Worker' discontent to shifting power in humanitarian systems.

Public discourse is rich in meaning, reflecting consensus, dissent, and change. Yet, very little public discourse on the humanitarian sector has been authored by aid workers themselves. We conducted a thematic analysis of the 'Secret Aid Worker' (SAW) series, published in The Guardian newspaper between 2015 and 2018, the only corpus of data on humanitarian life experiences publicly accessible through mainstream media. Our research questions were twofold: how did authors frame their work and appraise humanitarian structures?; and how did they reflect and amplify humanitarian issues of the time? The main themes included: personal challenges of humanitarian life; characterisation of stakeholders; and systemic issues within the humanitarian sector. The SAW narratives reveal a powerful discourse of discontent. They planted seeds of change regarding shifting power, coloniality and racism, sexual abuse, and duty of care. We argue that such public discourse has symbolic power, calling for greater accountability, equity, and justice in remaking the future of the humanitarian sector.

Stimulating the capacity to govern the commons.

The ability to strengthen governance institutions and fisheries restrictions and laws is needed to improve conservation and management of common-pool resources. We evaluated the potential for stimulating change with modest interventions by studying fishing village households before and after a 27-month intervention period in a high-priority coral reef conservation area. Interventions included training in catch monitoring, stock assessment, mapping fishing grounds, microcredit, gender inclusion, theatrical skills, fuel efficient stoves, and participation in the planning of a conservation proposal. There was a background increase in reported formal education, household size, group membership, and household wealth but a decrease in fish consumption and public services. Of conservation importance, the perceived strength of 13 governance institutions and benefits of 6 fisheries restrictions increased over the intervention period. Finally, correspondence between knowledge of and agreement with recent national fisheries laws was moderate to high and positively correlated. The intervention period was stronger than demographic factors that often influence perceptions, such as village, government services, gender, household size, membership in community groups, and age responses. In general, perceptions of strengths of governance and benefits of restrictions increased more among women and youth than adult men respondents. The largest changes in perceptions of increased benefits were among strict restrictions initially ranked low, specifically fisheries closures, parks, and species restrictions. Consequently, capacity building overrode demographic factors common to poor people with limited employment capacity that can have negative perceptions of strict conservation.

Variabilidad demográfica y escalas de aceptación y rechazo sobre las restricciones en el manejo de recursos Resumen Se necesita de la capacidad para fortalecer a las instituciones de gobierno y las leyes y restricciones a la pesca para mejorar la conservación y manejo de los recursos comunes. Evaluamos el potencial para estimular el cambio con intervenciones modestas con un estudio en los hogares de una aldea pesquera antes y después de un periodo de intervención de 27 meses en un área de conservación de gran prioridad para un arrecife de coral. Las intervenciones incluyeron formación en el monitoreo de las capturas, análisis de stock, mapeo de las zonas de pesca, microcréditos, inclusión de género, habilidades teatrales, estufas ecológicas y participación en la planeación de una propuesta de conservación. Hubo un incremento en el trasfondo de la educación formal reportada, el tamaño del hogar, los miembros del grupo y la riqueza del hogar, pero una disminución en el consumo de pescado y en el servicio público. Fue de importancia para la conservación que la fuerza percibida de 13 de las instituciones de gobierno y los beneficios de seis restricciones a la pesquería incrementaron durante el periodo de intervención. Por último, la correspondencia entre el conocimiento sobre y la aceptación de las leyes recientes de pesca fue de moderada a alta y con una correlación positiva. El periodo de intervención fue más fuerte que los factores demográficos que con frecuencia influyen sobre las percepciones, como las respuestas de los servicios de gobierno, aldea, género, tamaño del hogar, membresía en un grupo comunitario y edad. En general, la percepción de la fuerza de la gobernanza y los beneficios de las restricciones incrementó más entre las mujeres y la juventud que entre los hombres respondientes. Los cambios más grandes en la percepción del aumento en beneficios fueron entre las restricciones estrictas marcadas como bajas al inicio, específicamente el cierre de pesquerías, parques y restricción de especies. Como consecuencia, la formación de capacidad sobrepasó los factores demográficos, que con frecuencia son personas con una capacidad limitada de empleo que pueden tener una percepción negativa de la conservación estricta.

Solidarity with whom? Minority perspectives on allyship in Danish queer spaces.

Social psychological research has witnessed a burgeoning interest in advantaged group allies acting in solidarity with disadvantaged groups to challenge systems of inequality. While solidarity from advantaged group members is often deemed critical for social change, the perceptions of disadvantaged group members regarding ally participation are seldom addressed. This research delved into how LGBTQIA+ individuals in Denmark conceptualize allyship. Through 26 semi-structured interviews with participants and organizers of queer pride events, a thematic analysis identified three themes addressing how allyship materializes, what risks it bears and who it involves. Specifically, we present a three-levelled framework of allyship, which captures practices of allyship on a personal, relational and structural level. Our analysis also reveals the risk of allyship when it is not perceived as genuine and complexities of group boundaries when discussing allyship, shedding light on intersectional challenges within minority communities. These findings illustrate the nuances involved in providing and receiving allyship within and across various social (sub)groups.

Twentieth-Century Change in the Educational Costs of Adolescent Childbearing.

Although studies observe heterogeneity in the effects of adolescent childbearing on schooling, little is currently known about when this pattern emerged or how it changed across cohorts of women who lived in distinct periods of US history. This article identifies the potential origins of effect heterogeneity in the educational costs of adolescent childbearing and extends recent advances in causal inference to detect group differences in heterogeneity. The analysis applies this approach to four cohorts of women from the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) who entered adolescence before, during, and after expansive economic, demographic, and cultural change in the twentieth century. Results suggest that the educational costs of adolescent childbearing, as well as heterogeneity in those costs, increased for women in the latter half of the twentieth century, especially for millennial women born 1980-84. The authors conclude that midcentury social changes fundamentally altered the educational costs of adolescent childbearing for women.

Research in China about the biological mechanisms that potentially link socioenvironmental changes and mental health: a scoping review.

China's rapid socioeconomic development since 1990 makes it a fitting location to summarise research about how biological changes associated with socioenvironmental changes affect population mental health and, thus, lay the groundwork for subsequent, more focused studies. An initial search identified 308 review articles in the international literature about biomarkers associated with 12 common mental health disorders. We then searched for studies conducted in China that assessed the association of the identified mental health related-biomarkers with socioenvironmental factors in English-language and Chinese-language databases. We located 1330 articles published between 1 January 1990 and 1 August 2021 that reported a total of 3567 associations between 56 specific biomarkers and 11 socioenvironmental factors: 3156 (88·5%) about six types of environmental pollution, 381 (10·7%) about four health-related behaviours (diet, physical inactivity, internet misuse, and other lifestyle factors), and 30 (0·8%) about socioeconomic inequity. Only 245 (18·4%) of the papers simultaneously considered the possible effect of the biomarkers on mental health conditions; moreover, most of these studies assessed biomarkers in animal models of mental disorders, not human subjects. Among the 245 papers, mental health conditions were linked with biomarkers of environmental pollution in 188 (76·7%), with biomarkers of health-related behaviours in 48 (19·6%), and with biomarkers of socioeconomic inequality in 9 (3·7%). The 604 biomarker-mental health condition associations reported (107 in human subjects and 497 in animal models) included 379 (62·7%) about cognitive functioning, 117 (19·4%) about anxiety, 56 (9·3%) about depression, 21 (3·5%) about neurodevelopmental conditions, and 31 (5·1%) about neurobehavioural symptoms. Improved understanding of the biological mechanisms linking socioenvironmental changes to community mental health will require expanding the range of socioenvironmental factors considered, including mental health outcomes in more of the studies about the association of biomarkers with socioenvironmental factors, and increasing the proportion of studies that assess mental health outcomes in humans.

Women Who Perform Social Egg Freezing as Moral Pioneers: The Case of Ultra-Orthodox Communities in Israel.

Social egg freezing (SEF) is a new reproductive technology that is increasingly used within ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, stirring tensions between tradition and modernity. Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study examined how ultra-Orthodox singles who employ SEF engage in social negotiations over gender- and body-related norms. Findings show that participants successfully assimilated SEF by establishing facts on the ground and discreetly spreading information while actively avoiding tensions that may threaten religious tradition. SEF did not push participants into modern individualism or dissolve their strong connection to the community. However they did modify social boundaries and articulated social criticism.

Gamo's cultural forum-Dubussha as a tool for social change communication: Illiteracy and child labor abuse as a case in point.

This study investigated the instrumental potential of Gamo's traditional dialogue forum-Dubussha-for social change communication in general, using illiteracy and child labour abuse as a case in point. The study went on to analyze the motive that when traditions pave the way for new ways of life and thinking, changes are more applicable and transformative. As a result, this study sought to apply current values in a more local context and discovered that using culture as a vehicle for transformation yielded positive results. The two most popular tactics used to satisfy the study's goal of gathering information from largely alternatively educated respondents were intensive interviews and focus group discussions. Since cultural societies' skills, expertise, and knowledge are intricately related to their culture, the qualitative technique was effective in understanding and testing the research questions of this study. According to the study's objectives, three different focus group discussions (FGDs) were held in the Dita, Daramalo, and Chencha districts. Participants in the focus groups ranged in age, gender, and cultural background. Each FGD session included a diverse variety of participants, including women, men, student participants, and cultural leaders (Haleqas and/or Hudugas (opinion leaders). The FGD had 27 participants until it was full. Participants, facilitators, and in-depth interviewees were also purposively chosen. Finally, the study's findings indicated that Dubussha had a large potential for social change communication, particularly to reduce illiteracy and child labour abuse. Given that the cultural communication forum, Dubussha, is the major pillar of Gamo society's psychosocial structure, its use as an effective instrument for social change communication produced significant outcomes. Despite the gender and age differences in the application of "Dubussha," the outcome, acceptance, and glory of Dubussha among the Gamo community remained consistent.

MANdatory - why men need (and are needed for) gender equality progress.

While much progress has been made towards gender equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, education and society, recent years have also revealed continuing challenges that slow or halt this progress. To date, the majority of gender equality action has tended to approach gender equality from one side: being focused on the need to remove barriers for girls and women. We argue that this is only half the battle, and that a focus on men is MANdatory, highlighting three key areas: First, we review men's privileged status as being potentially threatened by progress in gender equality, and the effects of these threats for how men engage in gender-equality progress. Second, we highlight how men themselves are victims of restrictive gender roles, and the consequences of this for men's physical and mental health, and for their engagement at work and at home. Third, we review the role of men as allies in the fight for gender equality, and on the factors that impede and may aid in increasing men's involvement. We end with recommendations for work organizations, educational institutions and society at large to reach and involve men as positive agents of social change.

Vulture poisoning in Sub-Saharan Africa and its implications for conservation planning: A systematic review.

The Old World Vultures (OWV), constituting 16 species primarily in Africa, Europe and Asia, are currently being driven to extinction mostly by anthropogenic activities, especially poisoning. The vulture losses from poisoning caused by human-related activities are en masse at a single mortality event-level and occur in complex social-ecological systems. There has been a growing body of knowledge on wildlife poisoning over the years. However, no review has been done to consolidate vulture poisoning studies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with a social lens of conservation planning. Here we present a review of the vulture poisoning research by re-contextualizing the problem of vulture poisoning across SSA. We employed stepwise Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method to search for literature on vulture poisoning. The search yielded 211 studies which were trimmed to 55 after applying sets of eligibility criteria. Literature shows that efforts aimed at successful vulture conservation planning will require an understanding of the relational aspects of stakeholder social capital (assets) that are critical to the implementation of species recovery strategies. Strengthening relational social capital through multi-scale stakeholder evidence-based awareness creation and participation is necessary for addressing the African Vulture Crisis (AVC). Applying stakeholder social capital approaches to different vulture conservation scenarios at local, regional and international scales can enhance successful implementation of conservation strategies for the persistence of vultures in complex socio-ecological systems in African landscapes. Existing literature also showed the importance of stakeholder social capital as a countermeasure against vulture losses.

Social Change and Race-Specific Homicide Trajectories: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis.

Objectives: Social change and the aging process are racially bifurcated in the United States, where Black and White populations have long lived in divergent social worlds. This study examines the cohort patterns and life-course trajectories of Black and White homicide involvement over the past four decades. Data and Methods: The study uses data from the Supplemental Homicide Reports and Age-Period-Cohort-Interaction (APC-I) models to analyze race-specific trends of (alleged) homicide offending and victimization between 1976 and 2018 in the U.S. Results: Results reveal similar patterns in the age, period, and cohort effects on Black and White homicide involvement. However, while the shapes of these trajectories are comparable, the volatility in cohort effects on homicide is much more accentuated for Black cohorts than White cohorts. We also find racial differences for cohorts born after 1990, with a downward cohort pattern among the White group but a flat cohort trend among the Black group. Conclusions: Findings suggest that Black cohorts' homicide involvement is more susceptible than White cohorts' to the influence of external social changes (e.g., economic downturn, the crack epidemic). In addition, an increasing racial gap between Black and White populations is found among the recent birth cohorts. Possible mechanisms are discussed.

Defend, Deny, Distance, and Dismantle: A New Measure of Advantaged Identity Management.

The experience of privilege can trigger psychological conflict among advantaged group members. Nonetheless, little work has explored strategies that advantaged group members use to manage their identities as privileged actors. Building on Knowles et al.'s framework and theories of intergroup relations, we address the conceptualization and measurement of advantaged group identity-management strategies. We aim to refine theorizing and validate a measure of these strategies across three contexts (U.S.'s White-Black relations, Israel's Jewish-Arab/Palestinian relations, and U.S.'s gender relations). This process yielded two novel conceptual and empirical contributions. First, we add a strategy-defend-in which advantaged-group members overtly justify inequality. Second, we discover that distancing has two facets (distancing from inequality and from identity). Across six studies, we find support for our proposed factor structure, measurement invariance, and construct validity. We discuss how advantaged groups contend with privilege and offer a tool for studying these strategies across domains and contexts.

When Are Social Protests Effective?

Around the world, people engage in social protests aimed at addressing major societal problems. Certain protests have led to significant progress, yet other protests have resulted in little demonstrable change. We introduce a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of social protest made up of three components: (i) what types of action are being considered; (ii) what target audience is being affected; and (iii) what outcomes are being evaluated? We then review relevant research to suggest how the framework can help synthesize conflicting findings in the literature. This synthesis points to two key conclusions: that nonviolent protests are effective at mobilizing sympathizers to support the cause, whereas more disruptive protests can motivate support for policy change among resistant individuals.

Mobilizing or Sedative Effects? A Narrative Review of the Association Between Intergroup Contact and Collective Action Among Advantaged and Disadvantaged Groups.

ACADEMIC ABSTRACT: In this narrative review, we examined 134 studies of the relationship between intergroup contact and collective action benefiting disadvantaged groups. We aimed to identify whether, when, and why contact has mobilizing effects (promoting collective action) or sedative effects (inhibiting collective action). For both moderators and mediators, factors associated with the intergroup situation (compared with those associated with the out-group or the in-group) emerged as the most important. Group status had important effects. For members of socially advantaged groups (examined in 98 studies, 100 samples), contact had a general mobilizing effect, which was stronger when contact increased awareness of experiences of injustice among members of disadvantaged groups. For members of disadvantaged groups (examined in 49 studies, 58 samples), contact had mixed effects. Contact that increased awareness of injustice mobilized collection action; contact that made the legitimacy of group hierarchy or threat of retaliation more salient produced sedative effects. PUBLIC ABSTRACT: We present a review of existing studies that have investigated the relationship between intergroup contact and collective action aimed at promoting equity for disadvantaged groups. We further consider the influence of contact that is positive or negative and face-to-face or indirect (e.g., through mass or social media), and we distinguish between collective action that involves socially acceptable behaviors or is destructive and violent. We identified 134 studies, considering both advantaged (100 samples) and disadvantaged groups (58 samples). We found that intergroup contact impacts collective action differently depending on group status. Contact generally leads advantaged groups to mobilize in favor of disadvantaged groups. However, contact has variable effects on members of disadvantaged groups: It sometimes promotes their collective action in support of their own group; in other cases, it leads them to be less likely to engage in such action. We examine when and why contact can have these different effects.

Understanding youth drinking decline: Similarity and change in the function and social meaning of alcohol use (and non-use) in adolescent cohorts 20 years apart.

INTRODUCTION: Qualitative research aimed at understanding the decline in youth drinking has so far been hampered by a lack of baseline data for comparison. This New Zealand study overcomes this limitation by comparing archival qualitative data collected at the height of youth drinking (1999-2001) with contemporary data collected for this study (June-October 2022). The aim is to explore changes in the function and social meaning of alcohol use (and non-use) for two cohorts about 20 years apart. METHODS: Both archival and contemporary data were collected from 14 to 17 year old secondary school students (years 10-12) through individual and small-group/pair interviews in matched suburban co-ed schools. Interviews explored friendships, lifestyles, romantic relationships and experiences and perceptions of substance use and non-use. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Comparative analysis highlighted changes that may help to explain the decline in youth drinking, including an increased value placed on personal choice and acceptance of diversity; decreased face-to-face socialising and the emergence of social media as a central feature of adolescent social life, perhaps displacing key functions of drinking and partying; increased pervasiveness of risk discourses and increased awareness of health and social risks of alcohol; and increased framing of alcohol use as a coping mechanism by both drinkers and non-drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these changes appear to have shifted the social position of drinking from an almost compulsory component of adolescent social life in 1999-2001, to an optional activity that many contemporary adolescents perceive to have high risks and few benefits.

How positive and negative intergroup contact jointly inform minority support for social change: The role of system-fairness beliefs.

Research suggests that positive contact with majorities may 'sedate' (undermine) minority support for social change, while negative contact may promote it. However, most studies to date have examined both forms of contact separately, which may not give an accurate picture of their effects. This study examines the joint effects and interplay of positive and negative contact on minority support for social change, and the role of system-fairness beliefs across seven ethnic minority samples in six countries (N = 790). Multigroup Structural Equation Modelling showed that negative contact predicted higher minority support for social change. Positive contact predicted both less support for social change indirectly via enhanced system-fairness beliefs, and more support for social change directly. Except for one national context, the total effects of positive contact were either non-significant or significantly positive. This shows that increased system-fairness beliefs can explain sedative effects of positive contact, and that positive contact may also promote support for social change. We conclude that sedative effects of positive contact may be overestimated by not considering negative contact.

Terapia Ocupacional Social e Paulo Freire: Uma Revisão de escopo / Terapia Ocupacional Social y Paulo Freire: una revisión de alcance / Social Occupational Therapy and Paulo Freire: a scoping review

Paulo Freire é um importante autor que sustenta a práxis da Terapia Ocupacional Social. O intuito do presente trabalho é ampliar o escopo e adensar o caráter da presença acadêmica deste autor no campo da Terapia Ocupacional Social, tomando como referência produções científicas brasileiras. Como percurso metodológico, foi realizada uma revisão de escopo, com levantamento de estudos publicados em quatro periódicos brasileiros e bases de dados internacionais. As buscas foram realizadas utilizando a língua portuguesa. A revisão não definiu período inicial e considerou os artigos disponíveis online até fevereiro de 2023. Foram incluídos 18 estudos que possuem as obras de Freire em suas referências. Pedagogia do oprimido e Educação como prática de liberdade são as obras que mais aparecem nos artigos encontrados. Foi rea-lizado o refinamento das categorias freireanas, e constatou-se a presença de 42 delas, com destaque para conscientização, com onze ocorrências, transformação/ação transformadora e práxis/ação-reflexão, ambas com dez. Com os dados obtidos pelo estudo foi possível constatar o aumento do número de publicações na área da Terapia Ocupacional Social que utilizam o referencial teórico de Freire. A obra do autor tem colaborado de forma significativa na construção de uma Terapia Ocupacional Social problematizadora e emancipatória

Paulo Freire es un autor importante para apoyar la praxis de la Terapia Ocupacional Social. El propósito de este estudio es ampliar el alcance y profundizar en el carácter de la presencia académica de este autor en el campo de la Terapia Ocupacional Social. Como abordaje metodológico, se realizó una revisión de alcance con relevamiento de estudios publicados en cuatro revistas brasileñas y en bases de datos internacionales. Las búsquedas se realizaron solamente en portugués. No se estableció una fecha de inicio y se consideraron artículos disponibles en línea y publicados hasta febrero de 2023. El corpus estuvo constituido por 18 artículos que incluyen obras de Paulo Freire en sus referencias. Pedagogía del oprimido y Educación como práctica de libertadson las obras que más se referencian. Se depuraron las categorías freireanas y se constató la presencia de 42 de ellas, especialmente: concientización, once veces; transformación / acción transformadora y praxis / acción-reflexión, ambas, diez veces. Los resultados permiten constatar el aumento del número de publicaciones en el área de Terapia Ocupacional Social que utilizan el marco teórico de Freire. La obra del autor ha aportado significativamente a la construcción de una Terapia Ocupacional Social problematizadora y emancipadora.

Paulo Freire's work is important to support the praxis of Social Occupational Therapy. The purpose of this study is to expand the scope and deepen the character of the academic presence of Paulo Freire in Social Occupational Therapy. A scoping review was carried out as a methodological approach, including studies in four Brazilian journals and three international databases. The searches were conducted only in Portuguese; no year parameters were stipulated. The review considered articles published at any time up to February 2023. A total of 18 studies with Freire's works in their references were included; "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" and "Education, the Practice of Freedom" are the works that mostly appeared in the articles included. The refinement of the Freirean categories was carried out, and 42 categories were verified: conscientization, eleven times, transformation/transformative action, and praxis/action-reflection, both ten times. With the data obtained in the study, it was possible to verify the increase in the number of publications in Social Occupational Therapy that use Freire's theoretical framework. The author's work has contributed significantly to the construction of a problematizing and emancipating Social Occupational Therapy.