Frontiers in Sociology最新文献

This study analyzed the factors influencing childcare preference and the relationship between childcare preference and childcare service demand scale, using data collected from a questionnaire survey of 3,921 parents of infants and toddlers in Chongqing, China. The results indicate that parents with higher incomes, higher education levels, older ages, multiple infants, and dual-career living in urban areas have a stronger preference for childcare. In the shared or grandparent care model, the childcare preference is not obvious. Parents of infants tend to choose childcare institutions that provide reception services, early education, and convenience services. Higher quality environmental facilities tend to reduce the preference of parents for childcare.

Migration processes, which intensified in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, occur within a context of constant challenges and changing realities, necessitating new research in this area. Nearly all migrants, adapting to new forms of everyday existence, might experience socio-psychological stress. This study focuses on the socio-cultural and linguistic adaptation of the young generation of ethnic Kazakhs, as well as their psychological state within the educational environment, grounded in the concept of transnationalism. The authors conducted a survey and interviews with repatriate students from China and Mongolia in their native language, Kazakh. The research methodology, survey methodology and applied tools are comparable in terms of both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The sample population consisted of 230 respondents from five regions, aged between 16 and 25 years old. Furthermore, 30 qualitative, focused interviews were conducted. The discussion questions are related to several important factors, including the impact of the presence of relatives in the country of origin, the establishment of ties with them, and the integration of individuals into the social spheres of their historical homeland during their stay in Kazakhstan, as well as the processes of adaptation and integration into the new society. The results demonstrate the existence of transnational practices among the informants, which permits the categorization of these individuals as transnational migrants, despite the fact that a considerable number of them have completed the migration process. The findings of the research also indicated that repatriate students from Mongolia showed greater ease of adaptation in Kazakhstan, largely due to their more active communication with relatives and stronger inclination toward integration into local society. Conversely, Kazakh ethnic students from China, despite using contemporary communication technologies, encountered more challenges, largely due to emotional difficulties associated with the lack of physical proximity to their families and a prevalent intention to return to their families after graduation.

This study examines the experiences of three Australian South Sea Islanders from the same community who are part of a larger research team scheduled to engage in an archaeological research project in Mackay, Queensland, in 2021. The aim of the project was to highlight Australian South Sea Islander knowledge, voices, and lived experiences. However, owing to COVID-19 and persistent lockdowns in Queensland and New South Wales, the project faced significant delays. The timeline was adjusted, with plans to reintroduce the project to the community after an 18-month hiatus, aiming to rekindle interest and encourage participation. This study focuses on designing a community engagement strategy that builds on established protocols for researchers working with Australian South Sea Islander communities. The strategy includes three key steps: visitation, communication, and participation. By integrating the Tok Stori methodology-an Indigenous research approach from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu-the strategy supports the decolonisation of the collaborative research process, enabling the sharing of Australian South Sea Islander lived experiences in a culturally safe manner. The authors provide contextualised reflections, offering insights from an Australian South Sea Islander perspective.

Background: During humanitarian crises, women face both heightened vulnerabilities and a disruption to their social networks. Previous research points to the positive impact of women's collectives in low-income settings, but less is known about the distinct forms, mechanisms, and consequences of the social support that emerges from these collectives, particularly for women affected by conflict. Recognizing the importance of social support in such contexts, this study utilizes the photovoice methodology to examine the dynamics of social support across women's collectives in three distinct settings.

Methods: This study recruited forcibly displaced women participating in women's collectives in Indonesia (n = 5), Jordan (n = 12), and Uganda (n = 11). Photovoice, a participatory research method that centers the voices of study participants, was implemented across 7-8 sessions in each setting. Participants took photographs in response to four prompts and then discussed their pictures and lived experiences related to social support in facilitated discussion groups. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis and a mixed inductive and deductive approach.

Results: Across all study sites, participants highlighted the importance of five types of informal social support: emotional, instrumental, informational, companionship, and esteem support. Emotional support, one of the most prominently mentioned forms, served to buffer against stressors and enhance mental well-being. Instrumental and informational support facilitated meeting basic needs, accessing resources, and, in Uganda, improving members' physical safety. Companionship support fostered a sense of belonging and shared identity, while esteem support validated members' perspectives and aspirations and bolstered self-worth. In the Jordan collective, esteem support proved especially beneficial in countering the marginalization members experienced in their community.

Discussion: Findings underscore the critical role of women's collectives in providing diverse forms of social support to foster empowerment, agency, and resilience among forcibly displaced women. By centering the voices of participants and employing survivor-centered approaches like photovoice, this study amplifies the perspectives of women within these collectives, contributing to more inclusive and responsive humanitarian interventions. Future research should continue prioritizing women's experiences and research questions, ensuring that interventions address their needs effectively.

This article examines the regulatory framework related to human trafficking in Hong Kong and identifies its deficiencies as the lack of an accepted internationally compliant definition of trafficking and the absence of any specific criminal offence of trafficking as a result. The article compares the approach taken in Hong Kong to efforts undertaken in Europe by the Council of Europe, the UK, and the European Union and identifies several lessons from the European experience that could help rectify failures observed in Hong Kong. In particular, effective combatting of human trafficking requires not only a definition of the offence that recognises the essential elements-an "act," a "means," and a "purpose" of exploitation-but also the establishment of sufficient state institutions and agencies dedicated to identifying and protecting trafficking victims. Without the detection of trafficking victims, criminals engaged in the act of trafficking perceive their chances of being caught and prosecuted as low and operate with impunity. This necessitates the adoption of a consistent and readily identifiable criminal offence of "trafficking" aligned with the approach taken by the Palermo Protocol, just as the EU and UK have done.

In modern society, organizations are expected to be increasingly flexible and adapt to constantly changing environments. While such flexibility is often considered a positive trait of organizations, the risks of continuous organizational change are often overlooked. Against this background, we argue that continuous, multiple and uncoordinated organizational change can lead to a state we define as "organizational restlessness" and a loss of the benefits of stable structures. Paradoxically, it is even possible that organizational restlessness reduces the capability of organizations to planfully introduce specific and highly desirable changes, such as those related to digital transformation. Using qualitative data from interviews and participant observations, we analyze a large German public administration and identify three sources of organizational restlessness: the innovation imperative of modern society, changes in political leadership as a result of democratic elections and the bureaucratic principle of personnel rotation. While barriers to digital transformation are often explained by bureaucratic rigidity, we show that also constant uncoordinated change hinders sustainable digital transformation. Our paper thus contributes to an enhanced understanding of organizational continuity and disruption, as we show that both are needed to digitalize organizations further.

Introduction: The Sexual Violence Relief center Soccorso Violenza Sessuale (SVS) is a specialist service, situated in Sant'Anna Hospital, an Obstetrics and Gynecology facility in Turin, North-West Italy. The study aimed to qualitatively analyze the transcripts of interviews routinely conducted by gynecologist and midwife in the first part of the medical examination of migrant patients accessing care at SVS after being subjected to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in their home country or during migration and to explore the adverse outcomes of such violence on their health.

Methods: Interview transcripts were purposely selected to include adult migrant patients (age > 18) subjected to CRSV in the different phases of migration and accessing SVS from January 1st, 2014, to September 4th, 2023. Data was extracted from the SVS archive, anonymized, and thematically analyzed.

Results and discussion: In total, 43 interview transcripts were eligible for inclusion. All of them were related to cisgender women of Sub-Saharan origin describing different forms of violence as a driver for migration. CRSV was disclosed by 18 survivors as occurring in their home country and by 31 in transit (e.g., Libya), the most reported type being rape. 49% of the patients described adverse physical outcomes of CRSV, while 72% reported psychological sequelae. The findings confirm high levels and different modalities of violence throughout the migratory route. Qualitative analysis of interview transcripts served as a valuable source for understanding how survivors described the CRSV they endured, its consequences, as well as other violence encountered during migration.

This study explored how diversity management fuels innovative employee behavior in the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) emerging economy. Surveying 120 individuals from various service organizations, the research found a strong connection between diversity initiatives, and employee engagement, ultimately leading to more innovative practices. Diversity management directly impacts employee engagement, which in turn significantly influence innovative work behaviors. Interestingly, employee engagement fully mediates the relationship between diversity and innovation. These findings highlight the crucial role of diversity management in fostering a culture of innovation. Organizations can leverage this by investing in training by equipping employees with skills to effectively engage across diverse teams as well as promoting inclusivity through cultivating a work environment that values and respects differences, fostering open communication and collaboration. By implementing these recommendations, organizations can harness the power of diverse perspectives to drive innovation and gain a competitive edge.

Introduction: This study examines how intergroup dynamics shape political cynicism among Belgians of Turkish and Moroccan descent. Concretely, we examine whether perceptions of discrimination, feelings of ethnic outsiderness and social capital (in terms of associational membership) can explain minorities' belief that political elites are selfish, incompetent, and immoral.

Methods: We analyse data from the Belgian Ethnic Minorities Election Study 2014.

Results: Arguing that political cynicism includes blame attribution towards the political establishment, we distinguish between perceived group discrimination by the government, on the labor market, and in everyday life. As expected, political cynicism is closely related to perceptions of government discrimination, with no observed correlation with discrimination in the other domains. Next, we show that perceived ethnic outsiderness is also strongly related to increased feelings of political cynicism, further reinforcing the argument that cynics are concerned with their ethnic group's excluded status and position in society. Finally, associational membership is only related to lower political cynicism when it is generated exclusively within ethnic boundaries; there was no relationship with cross-ethnic social capital.

Discussion: Our findings show that intergroup indicators are highly relevant for understanding minorities' political cynicism, but that the intergroup dynamics operate in complex and nuanced ways.

Stemming from a critical perspective of feminist studies on masculinities, this article proposes to explore how dominant and hegemonic masculinities are being reimagined, renegotiated and reconstructed, by understanding new patterns of violence amongst boys, on the one hand; and how care, as the opposite of violence, and a concept in construction from a feminist perspective, can be adopted, put in practise and understood. From a feminist standpoint masculinities studies need to go through a renewed problematisation of the social constructions of masculinities in a space-time context that intersects the economic crisis, health crisis and, on the other hand, implementation of legislation and initiatives for gender equality and citizenship, and is marked by social challenges that are related to the increase of gender inequality, violence indicators and extremism but also the emergence of caring masculinities that need closer attention. This feminist approach to masculinities allows us to critically challenge hegemonic models of boyhood/manhood, specifically by developing a FEMINIST THEORY OF CARING MASCULINITIES. Through a critical understanding of the new patterns and ways in which patriarchal masculinities are perpetuated in society, and placing CARE as the centrepiece and pro-active practise that opposes violence sustained models of masculinities, feminist masculinities studies can challenge dominant forms of masculinity by taking action in diverse social contexts and emphasising empathy, emotional expression, and cooperative relationships.