Sustaining a democratic innovation: a study of three e-participatory budgets in Belo Horizonte

This article explores the transition from democratic innovation to institutionalised political process of e-participatory budgeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Applying a multimethod approach (content analysis, interviews and social media monitoring) regarding the last three editions (2008, 2011 and 2013), it considers how the proponents and organisers of ePB conceive its function in relation to the representative mechanisms that surround it; how the citizens of Belo Horizonte have responded to it in relation to their experience of being represented; and how governments seeking to institutionalise democratic innovations with a view to establishing more direct forms of representation might learn from this exercise.     

International migrations and care provisions for elderly people left behind. The cases of the Republic of Moldova and Romania

International migrations are posing numerous challenges to care systems in both sending and receiving countries. Based on a multi-method research conducted between 2011 and 2013, this article looks at how the care provisions for elderly people are rearranged in two Eastern European countries affected by the care drain phenomenon (the Republic of Moldova and Romania). The author charts and compares how transnational families, but also the other facets of the care diamond, such as the public sector, the market and the not-for-profit sector, provide care to elderly people left to cope at home alone because their close relatives have migrated. The main findings of the article are that transnational families are the principal welfare provider for elderly people left behind, while there is a serious delay in the adoption of specific policies for the elderly.     

At Home with the Missoni Family

This article explores narratives of domesticity present within the spaces, services and discourses of Hotel Missoni Edinburgh. It is argued that the hotel employs a series of marketing strategies evoking the Missoni family as a simulacrum of hosts through references to their home, their domestic practices and their lifestyle to emphasize effects of domesticity with the aim to create a sense of closeness and intimacy between the brand and its consumers. The gastronomic offerings of Hotel Missoni Edinburgh also refer to ideas of family and domesticity, elements associated with Italy and its lifestyle but also characteristic traits of the Missoni brand identity. It is further discussed how Hotel Missoni Edinburgh also employs a series of spatial strategies aimed at augmenting the connotations of domesticity of the hotel to recreate the feel of the Missoni household, producing a sort of hybrid space, also in terms of privacy, that is coherent with the Missoni brand ethos and appealing to costumers.     

Coping With LGBT and Racial–Ethnic‐Related Stressors: A Mixed‐Methods Study of LGBT Youth of Color

This study examines how racial–ethnic minority lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth cope with both racial–ethnic and LGBT‐related stress. Within a sample of 213 LGBT youth of color, the present study presents (1) quantitative and qualitative results from an approach and avoidance–based measure of parental racial coping socialization across six conversation domains, and (2) qualitative responses regarding LGBT stressors and associated coping strategies. The emphasis on approach versus avoidance varied across the racial–ethnic conversation domains. However, both racial–ethnic‐ and LGBT‐related coping strategies emphasized a combination of cognitive and behavioral strategies. Similarities and differences also existed in the types of stressors encountered across racial–ethnic and LGBT statuses. We discuss the potential for coping skill transfer across these minority statuses.     

Exploring African American Masculinities: An Integrative Model

To date, African American masculinity has been explored from several perspectives and across many disciplines. Much of the work on Black masculinity derives from scholarly fields and paradigmatic approaches that are seldom in conversation with one another. This review explores the applications and critiques of deficit, Afrocentric, gender/sex role, and identity paradigms commonly applied to discourses on African American manhood across various disciplines. Additionally, this paper concludes with a call for paradigmatic triangulation in Black gender scholarship towards creating a comprehensive notion of African American masculinity.     

Global human mobility and knowledge transfer: Highly skilled return migrants as agents of transnational learning

Global human mobility constitutes a key mechanism for knowledge transfer. This study examines the micro-dynamics of knowledge transfer in the developed-developing country migratory context. It highlights the agentic role of return migrants in transforming overseas learning into relevant knowledge in their home contexts. Drawing on situated and relational theories of knowledge and learning, the study views knowledge transfer as a relevance discovery process. It looks at a group of highly skilled migrants who had returned from developed countries to Ethiopia. Despite their high skill, the focus of knowledge transfer was mostly in non-technical fields that include a broad range of organizational knowledge and work practices. These were made relevant to the local context through the returnees’ ‘work of reconciliation’, involving ‘engagement’, ‘alignment’ and ‘imagination’. The study challenges the standard assumption of a one-way linear flow of knowledge from developed to developing countries. It sheds new light on the migration-development link by highlighting the ‘aspirational’ aspect of migrant transnational learning.     

The relationships among the big 5 personality factors and negative career thoughts

College students may present with career concerns that are interrelated with personality and psychological factors. Various authors have highlighted the need for career practitioners to take a holistic approach with clients seeking assistance. This research examined the intersection of personal and career characteristics, specifically personality and negative career thoughts. A total of 128 undergraduate students in five career course sections completed the NEO-Five Factor Inventory and the Career Thoughts Inventory. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that 27.1% of the variability in negative career thoughts was explained by the combined effect of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Personality factors had significant moderate correlations with specific aspects of negative thinking, including Decision-Making Confusion (DMC) and Neuroticism and Conscientiousness. Commitment Anxiety (CA) was significantly correlated with Neuroticism and Conscientiousness. We discuss how the findings highlight the intersection of career and personality factors, and the implications for theory, practice, and future research     

The Death of the West: An alternative view

Much has been written about the ‘Death of the West’, a demise threatened by the low level of reproduction in Western countries. That fate is contrasted unfavourably with the rapid growth of the populations and economies of less developed countries, and the prospect of the numerical and political marginalization of the formerly dominant developed world. We believe that trends in European fertility have been misunderstood and that, with effort and some pain, their consequences for age structure are manageable. Many European societies also enjoy the advantages of demographic and social maturity, the resilience of established consensual democratic institutions, the rule of law, and civil society. The sizes of China and India raise problems of resource sustainability and vulnerability to climate change. China risks falling into a low-fertility trap, reinforced by urban working conditions unfriendly to family formation. Traditional patriarchal and familist cultures may depress fertility rates to unhelpfully low levels in other less developed countries.