Decolonising the university in 2020

ABSTRACT

We came together as editors of Decolonising the University through a commitment to understanding the university and our place within it; to examine what else might be possible for us, collectively, in the domain of higher education. Although we do not always agree about the university– or, perhaps more specifically, about the possibilities it contains for intervening effectively in the world– we nonetheless coalesced around an idea of ‘decolonising the university’ as an important strategic mode of engagement. Here, we set out the positions that we come from in relation to the broader debates about the university and its political possibilities and offer responses also to the reviews. These are not our final words on the matter, but words shaped by the political possibilities that present themselves at the outset of 2020 and which, we hope, will contribute to the increasingly necessary dialogues on this topic.     

The rise of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in international development in historical perspective

Theory and Society - This article brings a historical perspective to explain the recent dissemination of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as the new “gold standard” method to assess...     

Changes in preschool children’s social engagement positively predict changes in social competence: A three‐year longitudinal study of portuguese children

To test the hypothesis that social engagement is a foundational aspect of other peer social competence indicators during early childhood, 160 Portuguese preschool children (“3‐year‐olds”) were observed at least in two different school years, using a battery of validated social competence assessments based on direct observations and child interviews. Multilevel growth models tested whether social engagement predicted initial values and linear changes in the other social competence indicators. Results were consistent with the hypothesis, insofar as both initial values and changes in social engagement significantly predicted initial values and changes in other social competence indicators. Additionally, the number of children's reciprocated friendships was also predicted by social engagement. These results are discussed from the perspectives of conceptual frameworks that consider individual differences in social competence during early childhood as a consequence of attachment histories and/or emotional competence.     

Concurrent training protocol for men with androgen deficiency in the aging male: a randomized clinical trial

Background: The androgen deficiency in the aging male (ADAM) affects physical, sexual, and psychological aspects with characteristics symptoms of middle-aged men. The practice of regular physical activity and physical exercise can attenuate these symptoms. The aim of this randomized clinical trial is to propose a physical exercise protocol based on concurrent training for middle-aged men with ADAM.

Method: Randomized clinical trial with a 6-month intervention will randomly divided into two groups: experimental group (EG) and control group (CG). Four evaluations will be carried out, (1) pre-intervention; (2) in the first month of intervention; (3) in the third month of intervention; (4) post-intervention, evaluating: physical, psychological, sexual, and hormonal aspects. The intervention protocol with concurrent training will have duration of 6 months; frequency of 3 times weekly, with 60?min per session. The two-way ANOVA test will be used for the inter-group and intra-group comparisons with repeated measurements, and also Sydak’s comparison test.

Conclusion: This protocol was developed with the intent of easing the symptoms of ADAM. In addition, it is believed that the concurrent training protocol could be capable to recover hormonal, physical, psychological, and sexual aspect of middle-aged men with ADAM.     

The Multiscale Importance of Road Segments in a Network Disruption Scenario: A Risk‐Based Approach

This article addresses the problem of the multiscale importance of road networks, with the aim of helping to establish a more resilient network in the event of a road disruption scenario. A new model for identifying the most important roads is described and applied on a local and regional scale. The work presented here represents a step forward, since it focuses on the interaction between identifying the most important roads in a network that connect people and health services, the specificity of the natural hazards that threaten the normal functioning of the network, and an assessment of the consequences of three real‐world interruptions from a multiscale perspective. The case studies concern three different past events: road interruptions due to a flood, a forest fire, and a mass movement. On the basis of the results obtained, it is possible to establish the roads for which risk management should be a priority. The multiscale perspective shows that in a road interruption the regional system may have the capacity to reorganize itself, although the interruption may have consequences for local dynamics. Coordination between local and regional scales is therefore important. The model proposed here allows for the scaling of emergency response facilities and human and physical resources. It represents an innovative approach to defining priorities, not only in the prevention phase but also in terms of the response to natural disasters, such as awareness of the consequences of road disruption for the rescue services sent out to local communities.     

Female executives and the glass ceiling in Spain

This paper examines the findings of a survey of the personal, educational and professional profiles of a sample of male and female senior executives of companies operating in Spain. The women were found to be younger; they had fewer children, resorted to more domestic help, and earned less than the men, although they often had higher qualifications. Yet cultural patterns and institutional barriers still prevent them from making full use of their capabilities. In spite of recent legislative efforts to promote gender equity at work, more than nine out of ten senior executives are still men.     

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY AND REDISTRIBUTION

This paper investigates the effect of linguistic diversity on redistribution in a broad cross‐section of countries. We use the notion of “linguistic distances” and show that the commonly used fractionalization index, which ignores linguistic distances, yields insignificant results. However, once distances between languages are accounted for, linguistic diversity has both a statistically and economically significant effect on redistribution. With an average level of redistribution of 9.5% of GDP in our data set, an increase byone standard deviation in the degree of diversity lowers redistribution by approximately one percentage point. We also demonstrate that other measures, such as polarization and peripheral heterogeneity, provide similar results when linguistic distances are incorporated. (JEL: D6, D74, H5, Z10)     

Profiles identification on hierarchical tree structure data sets

In this work we study a way to explore and extract more information from data sets with a hierarchical tree structure. We propose that any statistical study on this type of data should be made by group, after clustering. In this sense, the most adequate approach is to use the Mahalanobis–Wasserstein distance as a measure of similarity between the cases, to carry out clustering or unsupervised classification. This methodology allows for the clustering of cases, as well as the identification of their profiles, based on the distribution of all the variables that characterises each subject associated with each case. An application to a set of teenagers' interviews regarding their habits of communication is described. The interviewees answered several questions about the kind of contacts they had on their phone, Facebook, email or messenger as well as the frequency of communication between them. The results indicate that the methodology is adequate to cluster this kind of data sets, since it allows us to identify and characterise different profiles from the data. We compare the results obtained with this methodology with the ones obtained using the entire database, and we conclude that they may lead to different findings.