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In this chapter, we explore the intricate relationships between young disabled children, their families, institutional settings, and disability services in Canada, with an emphasis on the challenges stemming from unstable custodial dynamics and governmental interference. Drawing on data from a 9-year longitudinal Institutional Ethnography across three provinces and one territory, we analyze the experiences of 41 families who have interacted with the child welfare system, foster care, adoption processes, family courts, or other custodial procedures – many of them are Indigenous or live with low income. The historic and ongoing state control and institutionalization of disabled children in Canada are interrogated through the lens of settler-colonialism (Awj, 2017; Disability Rights International, 2021). This chapter scrutinizes constructs framed by colonial narratives, including disabled childhoods, notions of disability, the “best interest of the child,” the archetype of the “good parent,” and the designation of custodial “status.” We present Institutional Ethnography as a method of de-constructing these systems and identifying care principles in the changing context of family.

Purpose: This research investigates how producers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in Karachi, Pakistan, embrace sustainable manufacturing and consumption practices.

Study design/methodology/approach: This study employed a mixed research design, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The primary method of data collecting utilised in this study was semi-structured interviews. The survey sampled 11 FMCG manufacturers, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings: The research revealed that economic variables were crucial in adopting sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices among Karachi’s FMCG businesses. The economic reasons were motivated by the notion that adopting sustainable practices could result in financial benefits and enhanced market competitiveness. The research additionally discovered that consumer preferences were pivotal in stimulating sustainable practices within the FMCG business. Manufacturers indicated that adopting sustainable products and packaging was driven mainly by consumer demand.

Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on SCP within the FMCG business. It offers valuable insights into the factors influencing sustainable practices and customer preferences. This study emphasises the importance of economic, social, and environmental aspects in fostering sustainable practices within the FMCG industry, specifically focusing on developing nation environments such as Karachi. This study’s findings can contribute valuable insights for policy formulation and decision-making processes about SCP within Karachi’s FMCG business and other similar contexts.

In this chapter, we report on the perspectives of marginalised voices of disabled children and young people (CYP) in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. The conflict has contributed to many of the barriers preventing the rights of children to a quality education, such as the lack of schools, schools in a poor state of repair, attacks and the threat of attacks on schools, teachers and students. The research questions focused on the extent to which the children felt they belonged in their school or community and whether they were included in the design of their curriculum. Eight focus groups with CYP using a variety of participatory research methods were used to elicit their views on inclusion and their lives under occupation. The findings reveal that CYP are rarely involved in decisions about their education. Using participatory action research (PAR), we learnt that CYP with disabilities can provide intelligent and astute insights into their lived experiences, and that meaningful learning can occur if creative approaches to teaching and learning are adopted. To remain true to the emancipatory, egalitarian and democratic principles of PAR, the needs of the research participants should guide the research design, create maximum opportunities for participants to take part in data collection and decide on actions to create change.

The role of caregivers and issues of parenting are controversial in research on disability. While appreciating the historical and political reasons to critique power relations in care systems and care relations, we argue that it is important to consider parents' and other caregivers' positions. A reconsideration provides insights into pervasive effects of ableism defining not only the individual child but parents and other relatives as well. We draw from extensive research on couples parenting a child with disability in Germany (Tröndle, 2022a). This study seeks to understand how parents of a child with disability cannot avoid understanding themselves as “special parents.” Through analyzing shared life stories of couples and individual biographies, the study reconstructs how identities evolve differently depending on their work-sharing arrangements. Based on our findings, the couples experience difficulties in maintaining dual employment arrangements. They become “unable” to step outside of the logic of welfare and health provision and structures of the labor market. Couples begin to explain their situation and the discrimination they experience by reflecting themselves as “special parents.” Heteronormative and ableist expectations hinder them in articulating resistance and gaining agency as allies of their children, facilitating positions of complicity. We argue that the approach suggested by this study – namely including the ambiguous situation of caregivers in Disability Studies – can encourage other researchers to consider othering and ableism of and by caregivers.

This chapter will examine two questions. First, how can art and cultural heritage contribute to the health and well-being of a place within the context of the tourism industry? More specifically, can cultural tourism be a driver for community sustainability, that is, not only environmental sustainability but also social empowerment, cultural preservation, and economic vitality? To explore these questions, the author begins by establishing the ways art and environment are closely intertwined, while pondering how cultural production generally – along with the cultural tourists it attracts – can be a driver for sustainability in tourism settings. The benefits that the arts draw from the environment as well as the ways the environment benefits from the arts will be examined. In the next section, the author unpacks how cultural tourism, and more specifically art production, can be drivers for environmental sustainability through social and eco-entrepreneurship and the creation of a shared social value. In the third section, the author identifies some of the challenges inherent in government regulation and preservation of cultural heritage sites. The author argues that communication, cooperation, and relationship building, not just between governing bodies and private stakeholders, but with residents and tourists, should be prioritized in destination management and marketing strategies. In the end, the author proposes that this type of strategy is vital in order to move toward greater cultural, environmental, social, economic, and other kinds of sustainability in the tourism industry.

Scholarly works on sex work and sex workers are mostly confined to discourses on human trafficking and the incidence of HIV/STIs among sex workers. Although crucial, this restricted focus has neglected the reality that sex workers are a diverse community, and while their challenges may appear to be linked at first glance, they differ greatly. While extensive research has been conducted on sex workers working in more open settings like brothels, hotels, and streets, there is a scarcity of research on sex workers working in more private spaces, such as, for instance, their own homes. Within the hierarchy of sex workers, home-based sex workers (HBSWs) among the indoor sex workers dominate commercial sex transactions. However, they are often overlooked due to their covert nature and invisible landscape. This chapter addresses the knowledge gap by examining the work lives and conditions of home-based female sex workers (FHBSWs) in Punjab. The study analyzes the complex lives of sex workers who use their home as both a family unit and a workplace. A detailed analysis of the risks and vulnerabilities they face in their daily lives and their coping strategies is also examined in this chapter. The study points out that although working from home may have positive outcomes for sex workers, the integration of sex work into the home environment exposes them to several challenges. Hence, the study emphasizes the need for tailoring interventions for sex workers who operate in different physical environments so that their unique needs and challenges are well addressed.