The spatialization of decent work and the role of employability empowerment for minority ethnic young people in emerging economies.

Global rises in precarious labour conditions have prompted further empirical work in Decent Work, a special category of employment characterised by equitable pay, treatment, and healthy working conditions. Despite this, research has tended to be conducted in developed countries with privileged groups such as those with typical working arrangements and rely on psychologically framed individual characteristics to explain marginalising factors. We propose a more sociologically framed, spatialised perspective on Decent Work which posits that marginalising factors are spatially variable and determined but moderated by employability empowerment. We measure our propositions across three spatially different sites of Vietnam through (1) a survey of minority ethnic students and graduates (N = 1071) and (2) a survey of stakeholders involved in the recruitment and employment of this group (N = 204). We find support for most of our propositions and call for more spatialised empirical work in the field of Decent Work.

The central role of climate action in achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 refers to "Climate Action". It is one of the 17 goals established by the United Nations in their 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The primary objective of SDG13 is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. It recognises that climate change is a global challenge that requires immediate attention and concerted efforts from governments, businesses, communities, and individuals worldwide. SDG13 permeates a number of SDGs and also influences them in a significant way. Based on the need to contextualise SDG13 and considering its role as one of the central SDGs, this article outlines the links between SDG13 and the other SDGs. It also reports on a survey involving experts from 61 countries. The findings suggest that even though climate change impacts, particularly extreme weather events, are known to disproportionally affect poorer and minoritized communities, the synergies among related goals and climate justice seem to receive less attention. The article concludes by describing some of the means via which synergies between SDG13 and other SDGs may be achieved.

The impacts of the early outset of the COVID-19 pandemic on climate change research: Implications for policy-making.

Since January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the media and exercises pressure on governments worldwide. Apart from its effects on economies, education systems and societies, the pandemic has also influenced climate change research. This paper examines the extent to which COVID-19 has influenced climate change research worldwide during the first wave at the beginning of 2020 and how it is perceived to exploit it in the future. This study utilised an international survey involving those dedicated to climate change science and management research from Academia, Government, NGOs, and international agencies in 83 countries. The analysis of responses encompasses four independent variables: Institutions, Regions, Scientific Areas, and the level of economic development represented by the Human Development Index (HDI). Results show that: (1) COVID-19 modified the way the surveyed researchers work, (2) there are indicators that COVID-19 has already influenced the direction of climate change and adaptation policy implementation, and (3) respondents perceived (explicitly concerning the COVID-19 lockdowns of March-April 2020), that the pandemic has drawn attention away from climate policy. COVID- 19 has influenced the agenda of climate change research for more than half of the respondents and is likely to continue in the future, suggesting that the impacts on their research will still be felt for many years. The paper concludes by outlining critical implications for policy-making.

Impacts of COVID-19 and social isolation on academic staff and students at universities: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: "The impacts of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the shutdown it triggered at universities across the world, led to a great degree of social isolation among university staff and students. The aim of this study was to identify the perceived consequences of this on staff and their work and on students and their studies at universities. METHOD: The study used a variety of methods, which involved an on-line survey on the influences of social isolation using a non-probability sampling. More specifically, two techniques were used, namely a convenience sampling (i.e. involving members of the academic community, which are easy to reach by the study team), supported by a snow ball sampling (recruiting respondents among acquaintances of the participants). A total of 711 questionnaires from 41 countries were received. Descriptive statistics were deployed to analyse trends and to identify socio-demographic differences. Inferential statistics were used to assess significant differences among the geographical regions, work areas and other socio-demographic factors related to impacts of social isolation of university staff and students. RESULTS: The study reveals that 90% of the respondents have been affected by the shutdown and unable to perform normal work or studies at their institution for between 1 week to 2 months. While 70% of the respondents perceive negative impacts of COVID 19 on their work or studies, more than 60% of them value the additional time that they have had indoors with families and others. . CONCLUSIONS: While the majority of the respondents agree that they suffered from the lack of social interaction and communication during the social distancing/isolation, there were significant differences in the reactions to the lockdowns between academic staff and students. There are also differences in the degree of influence of some of the problems, when compared across geographical regions. In addition to policy actions that may be deployed, further research on innovative methods of teaching and communication with students is needed in order to allow staff and students to better cope with social isolation in cases of new or recurring pandemics.

COVID-19: the impact of a global crisis on sustainable development teaching.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainability is being taught at universities. This paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole and the lockdown it triggered in particular, which has led to the suspension of presence-based teaching in universities worldwide and influenced teaching on matters related to sustainable development. By means of a worldwide survey involving higher education institutions across all continents, the study has identified a number of patterns, trends and problems. The results from the study show that the epidemic has significantly affected teaching practices. The lockdowns have led to a surge in the use of on-line communication tools as a partial replacement to normal lessons. In addition, many faculty teaching sustainability in higher education have strong competencies in digital literacy. The sampled higher education educations have-as a whole-adequate infrastructure to continue to teach during the lockdowns. Finally, the majority of the sample revealed that they miss the interactions via direct face-to-face student engagement, which is deemed as necessary for the effective teaching of sustainability content. The implications of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, it describes how sustainability teaching on sustainable development has been affected by the lockdown. Secondly, it describes some of the solutions deployed to overcome the problem. Finally, the paper outlines the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic may serve the purpose of showing how university teaching on sustainability may be improved in the future, taking more advantage of modern information technologies.

COVID-19: the impact of a global crisis on sustainable development research.

The crisis caused by COVID-19 has affected research in a variety of ways. As far as research on sustainable development is concerned, the lockdown has significantly disrupted the usual communication channels and, among other things, has led to the cancellation of meetings and long-planned events. It has also led to delay in the delivery of research projects. There is a gap in the literature in regards to how a global crisis influences sustainability research. Therefore, this ground-breaking paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole, and the lockdown in particular, has influenced sustainability research, and it outlines the solutions pursued by researchers around the world to overcome the many challenges they have experienced. This paper also outlines some measures that may be implemented in the future to take more advantage of existing technologies that support research on sustainable development.