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Religious and cultural influences on domestic violence attitudes and responses in UK ethnic minority and migrant communities: A qualitative inquiry
Get PDFThe current paper presents findings from qualitative research on domestic violence and abuse (DVA) with Christians and Muslims from Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Bangladeshi communities in the United Kingdom (UK). The study explored understandings of and attitudes toward DVA and responses that integrated cultural and religious institutions and resources. Qualitative research was conducted with the help of community-based researchers with existing links and relationships of trust in the respective communities. Three researchers conducted 16 interviews and one focus group discussion with eight participants (total n = 24). The study added to the existing evidence on barriers that DVA victims from ethnic minority faith communities face in migration contexts, adding insight into the complex interactions between norms and pressures at country of origin and conditions in the host society, and the role of religious beliefs as culturally contextualized in this relationship. The study also reinforced the significant role that religious establishments and mediators can play in domestic violence responses, but also their general unpreparedness to do so. Participants proposed that integrating religious institutions and resources in DVA responses would be an effective way forward
"A combination of everything": a mixed-methods approach to the factors which autistic people consider important in suicidality
Get PDFBackgroundSuicide is a leading cause of death for autistic people, but inadequately explained by theories derived in non-autistic populations. Autistic people's perceptions of the factors underpinning suicidal experiences are vital for guiding conceptual understanding, risk assessment, and policy and clinical practice towards preventing suicide.MethodsWe recruited 1369 autistic participants for an online survey designed through consultation with autistic people. Participants were 326 cisgender men, 718 cisgender women, and 325 transgender or gender-divergent individuals, ranging from 16-89 years old. We asked them to rate the importance of 19 contributing factors to their suicidal thoughts and feelings, and enter their own explanations of additional factors if desired. Alongside thematically analysing this qualitative data, we examined whether ratings of contributing factors differed by age and gender, and whether ratings statistically predicted levels of lifetime suicidality.ResultsLoneliness, feelings of worthlessness/failure, hopelessness and mental illness were the highest rated contributing factors to suicidal thoughts and feelings, particularly by autistic women and sex/gender minorities; ratings also differed by age. Qualitative responses indicated the complexity of suicidality, wherein autistic status influenced both the nature of the stressors (e.g. societal stigma) and cognitive-emotional states (e.g. feeling disconnected through feeling different to others) that participants identified. Greater perceived importance of bullying, difficulties accessing support and past trauma characterised participants with experience of suicide plans or attempts.ConclusionWhile some of the experiences and mental states identified by participants resembled those identified in non-autistic groups, the psychological profile of autistic participants and their experiences of marginalisation appeared to heavily contextualise expressions of hopelessness, burdensomeness, worthlessness, loneliness and entrapment. Autistic people vary with regards the factors perceived to underpin suicidality. However, associations between suicidality and the perceived importance of bullying, trauma, and inability to access support highlight the necessity of societal and systemic change to prevent suicide
e-HRM in Action: The Relationship Between Employee Behaviours and Perceived Organisational Success – A Comparative Study Between Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom
No full textThe new normal, with massive technological advancements, has ushered in a situation where managing employee behaviour has become increasingly challenging. Rapid changes in the workplace have made the matters more complex. With the widespread adoption of technology, particularly the strategic implementation of electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM), employee behaviours play a crucial role in determining perceived organisational success (POS). The main contribution of this study is the identification of the relationship between e-HRM implementation and POS through specific behavioural constructs: employee engagement (EE), employee empowerment (EEM), organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), employee performance (EP) and employee agility (EA). This study offers value by providing a theoretical framework for examining these relationships that shape workplace dynamics, drawing on social exchange theory (SET). This quantitative study employs a cross-sectional survey research design to test hypotheses across different organisations and compares findings between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Kingdom (UK). Data were collected from 350 employed respondents from Saudi Arabia and 263 from the UK. IBM SPSS Statistics software was used for coding and analysis, and CB-SEM for Structural Equation Modelling to measure and evaluate the relationships between the study variables. The findings showed that e-HRM implementation related to EEM, which in turn linked to EP, led to POS in the KSA context. Meanwhile, in the UK, e-HRM was linked to OCB, which was subsequently connected to EP and ultimately led to POS. Furthermore, EA did not moderate the relationship between EP and POS in either sample. This study contributes to extending and enriching the literature on e-HRM and employee behaviour, demonstrating how integrating an e-HRM system with employee behaviour enhances the organisation’s ability to foster prosperity
'The Work is Blessed, Unique': The Fatimid Silver Casket of Sadaqa b. Yusuf
Get PDFThis paper contributes to the literature on Fatimid art and its connections with the broader Mediterranean art, through a focused study of an important and beautiful silver casket
China for Africa's Industrialization?
Get PDFChina's engagement in Africa since 2000 consists of a diverse set of institutions, activities, relations, investment flows and other economic statecraft events. These have generated opportunities for economic transformation, reviving the prospects for industrialization and job creation in some African countries following decades of neglect. While the case for industrialization-led structural transformation is strong, the proposed means of pursuing this pathway vary, necessitating bold vision and interventions. Whether through infrastructure funding and building, or direct greenfield investments, China is helping lay the foundations for industrialization in Africa, albeit unevenly and slowly. The vectors and outcomes are, however, variegated, calling for a comparative examination. Therefore, the Element illustrates variations in outcomes and the importance of context when considering the vectors of Africa–China engagements, how they contribute to industrialization prospects, and the central role of policy agency, bargaining and contestation
Guest editor. Special Issue of Journal of Law and Public Policy: Social Accountability for Commons
No full textToward decoloniality of connectedness in higher education
Get PDFCurrent decolonial efforts in universities have been argued to be superficial, without challenging the deeper structures of coloniality. This paper proposes the concept of decoloniality of connectedness as a critical framework for decolonial praxis, with a particular application to higher education. We argue that focusing on connectedness can help to improve decolonial analysis by examining various relations that have been purposefully severed in order to conceive of, establish and manage coloniality. To demonstrate this, we analyse higher education through the lens of what we refer to as the colonial disconnect, noting a divide between staff and students, researchers and researched, and knowledge and knowers. We use the methodology of decolonial dreaming to imagine higher education that redresses colonial legacies, based on five principles: (1) connectedness, (2) fostering horizontal relationships, (3) radical re-humanisation, (4) parity of non-Western epistemologies, and (5) political nature of knowledge. The paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how coloniality operates in higher education and how focussing on connectedness can improve the decolonial praxis
Solidarity and ecological balance: global perspectives on revaluing eco-human kinship
Get PDFThis article explores the concept and application of ‘solidarity’ and ecological ‘balance’ as a way to gain a fresh perspective on the relationship between nature and humankind. Following a legal pluralist and post-humanist theoretical framework, solidarity and balance are examined for how they are expressed to illustrate the ecological and social interdependencies between ecosystems and society, and their impact on environmental governance. The application of balance and solidarity are presented through five specific philosophies, movements or worldviews that propose alternative models of non-Western socio-economic and legal-cultural pathways: the Balinese Tri Hita Karana, Central and Southern Africa’s Ubuntu, South America’s buen vivir, India’s ecological Swaraj, and the global conceptualisation and application of degrowth. These perspectives emphasise the importance of cultural and legal plurality as well as the communal efforts to achieve environmental sustainability, social justice, and wellbeing. They all support a narrative that displaces the traditional universalisation of anthropocentrism and Western-centric modes of conceptualising and interpreting law and society. The intent of this analysis isto explore the similarities among the above worldviews and present their potential applicabilityto a variety of contexts. By de-centring Western anthropocentric paradigms of environmental governance, it is possible to overcome the false dichotomy between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches in environmental law and contribute to a re-prioritisation of the role of nature in the debate on sustainable development. This process of re-prioritisation has both theoretical and practical significance, as it brings together the contributions of legal pluralism and posthumanism in environmental and social governance on one hand, and appraises alternative tools and modalities for law and policy-making that fully recognise the role of local and indigenous practices on the other. 
Tourism for Development: Rethinking Development, Social Protection and the Wellbeing of Precarious Workers in Gambia’s Tourism Industry
Get PDFThis thesis sets out to explore precarious working conditions in Gambia’s tourism industry. It draws on the data collected from a year-long multi-sited critical ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2022 and 2023 amongst beach boys and tourist taximen, alongside semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with women in tourism employment, within the urban tourism hotspot of Senegambia. The study departs from the mainstream discourse—where precarious workers are often situated in sex tourism paradigms—to analysis of hitherto the under-researched neoliberalism in the industry and its impacts on labour conditions. Using Critical Policy Analysis (CPA), wherein policy appraisals are combined with key informant interviews, it explores and accentuates the neoliberal character of the industry, henceforth situating precarious labour analysis within broader politicoeconomic systems. In doing so, it draws on Marxian political economy, racial capitalism and social reproduction theory as theoretical frameworks in elucidating the classed, gendered and racialised social relations and labour practices of tourism. The empirical findings uncover how the prevailing tensions between neoliberal economic structures and labour agency produce pervasive precarity in the industry. The findings of this thesis are articulated in four stages. First, it traces the historical development of tourism as an industry from the postcolonial period (1970s—1990s), with a focus on state and donor policies. This contextualisation not only locates the emergence of neoliberalism in tourism but also examines its transformations and hegemonic character in subsequent political dispensations. Second, it presents a rich critical ethnographic account of the hyper-precarious labour and dehumanisation experienced by beach boys on the shores of the Senegambia enclave. Third, it turns to the tourist taxi drivers at the heart of the enclave, illuminating their complex rituals and social solidarities amidst mounting precarity. Finally, moving beyond male-dominated livelihood terrains, the thesis sheds light on the precarious labour experiences of women employed in frontline tourism firms and those engaged in self-led petty trading. This study contributes to the theoretical debates on tourism and development in the Global South by its analysis of how the economic prospects of the industry overshadow qualitative considerations on local livelihoods. In particular, it speaks to the political economy standpoint in appreciating how the industry is a central feature of global capitalism—in fuelling labour rigidities and inequalities. In this way, whereas it acknowledges that the neoliberal constellation of tourism in the Global South is influenced by policy dictates of global institutions and thus the prevailing focus of political economy strand, the thesis calls for a close scrutiny of state-administered neoliberalism. Relatedly, it advocates for what is dubbed here as the variegated political economy of tourism—one that transcends classical Marxian analysis by incorporating social reproduction theory and racial capitalism as theoretical frameworks—to rigorously analyse the classed, gendered and racialised complexities of the industry. The final contribution of the thesis lies in its engagement with academic praxis and methods. The work here does not only stands as a novel critical ethnography of Gambia’s tourism industry but also expands our understanding of the field method’s primacy in structure–agency analysis, reflexivity on knowledge claims and researcher–researched power relationships, and the mediation of contesting identities as ethnographers-at-home
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