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This paper delves into the critical role of women in the domains of architecture, engineering, construction and urban planning, particularly within the context of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the imperative of achieving gender parity. Concentrating on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, this paper explores the profound importance of women as essential contributors to urbanisation and sustainable development. It scrutinizes the existing gender disparities within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries; evaluates prevailing women empowerment indices in diverse sectors; and presents a strategic framework for harnessing women’s engagement to cultivate inclusive and sustainable urban cultures in the GCC. This conceptual paper introduces an actionable framework that can serve as a guiding agenda for empowering women in the AEC sectors by incorporating their socio-cultural, economic and ecological contributions towards creating sustainable cities.

Centring its focus on Gulf Cities, this paper employs a comprehensive approach to examine the current gender disparities within the architecture, engineering and construction sectors. It probes potential barriers and advocates for leveraging women’s participation to foster inclusive and sustainable urban development in the GCC. The study introduces the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) for the Gulf AEC industry elucidating how these measures are translated into a tailored framework.

The paper presents a practical framework that provides actionable guidance for engaging various stakeholders, including governments, academia and industry players, to empower women within the AEC industries. An “Agenda for equitable AEC industries for sustainable urban development: Our Common Gulf Cities” is culminated in a Women Empowerment Index for the AEC Industry (WEI-AEC) designed to serve as a guidance tool to monitor progress within industry, governments and academia.

Future research endeavours could advance the framework by conducting institutional support analyses, multi-stakeholder collaboration studies and practical testing of the framework within real-world scenarios.

The findings of this study can guide and influence a diverse range of initiatives, including policy development, educational strategies, corporate endeavours, awareness campaigns, capacity-building programs, skill enhancement initiatives and knowledge exchange among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

This conceptual paper introduces a practical framework that can serve as a roadmap for implementing the study’s potential to shape policies, educational programs and corporate initiatives aimed at advancing both gender equality and the development of sustainable cities.

The need to digitise is an awareness that is shared across our community globally, and yet the probability of the intersection between resources, expertise and institutions are not as prospective. A strategic view towards the long-term goal of cultivating and digitally upskilling the younger generation, building a community and creating awareness with digital activities that can be beneficial for cultural heritage is necessary.

The work involves distributing tasks between stakeholders and local volunteers. It uses close-range photogrammetry for reconstructing the entire heritage site in 3D, and outlines achievable digitisation activities in the crowdsourced, close-range photogrammetry of a 19th century Cheah Kongsi clan temple located in George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Penang, Malaysia.

The research explores whether loosely distributing photogrammetry work that partially simulates an unorganised crowdsourcing activity can generate complete models of a site that meets the criteria set by the needs of the clan temple. The data acquired were able to provide a complete visual record of the site, but the 3D models that was generated through the distributed task revealed gaps that needed further measurements.

Key lessons learned in this activity is transferable. Furthermore, the involvement of volunteers can also raise awareness of ownership, identity and care for local cultural heritage.

Key lessons learned in this activity is transferable. Furthermore, the involvement of volunteers can also raise awareness of identity, ownership, cultural understanding, and care for local cultural heritage.

The value of semi-formal activities indicated that set goals can be achieved through crowdsourcing and that the new generation can be taught both to care for their heritage, and that the transfer of digital skills is made possible through such activities. The mass crowdsourcing activity is the first of its kind that attempts to completely digitise a cultural heritage site in 3D via distributed activities.

Research has shown that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) self-beliefs and enjoyment are critical factors for predicting female students’ persistence in STEM degrees and careers. Studies have shown the positive effects of informal STEM learning experiences on female students’ self-beliefs. However, with the rise of all-female STEM learning experiences, such as summer camps, considering the potential advantages and disadvantages of co-ed options is important. Further, prior STEM education research has focused on sex differences in students’ self-efficacy and STEM career interests. Our study aims to examine within sex differences in secondary, female students (n = 104) who attend either a co-ed STEM camp or a same-sex STEM camp.

To examine potential differences, we conducted independent sample t-tests.

Results of the study include statistically significant differences in mathematics and science self-efficacy as well as STEM career interest after participating in their respective camps.

Further, prior research in STEM education has focused on between sex differences in students’ self-efficacy and STEM career interest.

The aim of this study is to investigate how educational researchers work together with practitioners in practical research projects.

Mixed-method.

Our findings suggest that researchers recognize their own limitations as well as those of practitioners and policy makers and learn from collaboration, but that they lack ideas on what activities they can undertake to overcome limitations. Furthermore, educational researchers emphasize the importance of continuous and systematic organized exchange with educational practitioners. We discuss the needs and challenges of educational researchers interacting with educational practitioners during their research.

We believe that sustainable research and practice partnerships (RPPs) provide a more effective platform for collaboration between researchers and practitioners. This is because long-term engagement in cross-boundary work within these partnerships promotes the development of new knowledge, routines and methods, thereby improving educational practice. Unfortunately, there are few RPPs in Germany (the context of the researchers interviewed). Consequently, it is critical that funding policies, particularly outside the United States, provide greater support for RPPs and the necessary resources for these partnerships. Even if funding for RPPs is not always possible, our research suggests that short-term collaborative agreements in research-practice projects are preferable to relying on informal transfer channels.

This study examines why low-wealth women entrepreneurs forgo mobile enabled money services and government supported micro finance for informal, community-based revolving loans in rural Nigeria.

Thematic analysis of 25 interviews with women in rural, south-west Nigeria. Entrepreneurial ecosystem theory, in the gendered context of micro finance and community-based lending, is employed.

This study explains the paradox of forgoing seemingly accessible mobile enabled credit, and formal credit schemes (e.g. micro-finance programs) for informal, one-on-one borrowing. Convenience and trust-based relationships with respected community members ease the burden of time scarcity and vulnerability associated with formal capital. Flexible terms, autonomy, self-reliance and knowing who one is dealing with make Esusu a preferred source of finance. Findings are discussed in the context of gendered entrepreneurial ecosystems in which participants conduct business.

The sample is not representative of women entrepreneurs in rural Nigeria. Survivorship bias is acknowledged. Further research is needed on the psychological risks of informal capital and the benefits of community-based lending.

Measures to scale mobile enabled credit, without commensurate interventions to address time management and other structural issues that confront women traders, limit their utility and impacts. Power differentials between women traders and lenders must also be considered in the design of lending products. Training of women traders and formal lenders should incorporate curricula about gender gaps in capital markets and systematic gender challenges to support entrepreneurs who seek to grow beyond subsistence enterprises.

This study documents decision criteria that motivate informal rural women traders to employ community-based revolving credit or Esusu. Findings inform measures to increase women entrepreneurs' access to capital in a rural sub-Saharan Africa contexts.

Grounded on the distributed theory and the social exchange theory, the current study investigates the determinants that positively influence job performance among educators within the realm of higher education in India. It particularly assesses the impact of perceived academic leadership on performance and explores the mediating and moderating effects of organizational citizenship behavior and informal institutional leadership.

Employing a descriptive research design, this study encompasses a broad cross-section of faculty members from various higher educational institutions across India. Data were gathered from 826 educators using a snowball sampling technique, with questionnaires administered online. Each variable was measured using prevalidated scales.

The findings from the moderated mediation model indicate a significant indirect relationship between perceived academic leadership and job performance, which is mediated by organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, informal institutional leadership demonstrates significant conditional indirect effects, enhancing the link between academic leadership and job performance up to a threshold, beyond which its influence diminishes.

This study pioneers the exploration of academic dynamics beyond mere titles and ranks in the Indian educational sector. It delineates both the direct and indirect roles these dynamics play in enhancing faculty performance, providing a novel insight into the complexities of academic leadership.

The study assesses the livelihood resilience strategies among street hawkers during COVID-19 lockdown in the Awutu Senya East Municipality in Ghana.

Using the explanatory case study approach, 12 participants (hawkers) were sampled with the aid of the purposive and convenience sampling techniques. An interview guide was used to collect data.

The study found that street hawking business, prior to the COVID-19 lockdown was a lucrative venture. The COVID-19 lockdown however had mental, psychological and economic effects on the street hawkers in ASEM causing stress, anxiety. loneliness, loss of business capital, and loss of jobs. Hawkers nevertheless demonstrated resilience in their psychological well-being by adopting strategies such as patronizing digital/social media platforms for funny content and entertainment. Hawkers also showed economic resilience through selling products on digital/social media platforms, relied on personal savings, received social support from family members and religious bodies. Government policies and interventions in the form of free water and electricity played a crucial role in building resilience of street hawkers during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The study shows that hawking is a vital avenue for entrepreneurial engagement reducing barriers to entry in formal trading, hence should be considered as key economic venture in the country’s economy. Again, the findings of the study deepen the understanding of stakeholders on the effects of COVID-19 on the psychological and economic life of street hawkers and offers insights into managing both psychosocial and financial stress during crises, emphasizing the potential benefits of resilient strategies for more effective crisis management. The study findings provide insights for government and policymakers on the experiences and coping mechanisms of the vulnerable groups and communities, particularly hawkers during the pandemic.

The study qualitatively assesses the psychological and economic effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and the livelihood resilience strategies employed by street hawkers during the COVID-19 lockdown in ASEM, Ghana.

This paper aims at contributing to our understanding of how self-settled Syrian refugees (registered and non-registered) use informal practices to forge their non-political agency and how this agency could be considered as political acts.

This paper was conducted per the qualitative data analysis (in-depth interviews and participant observation), attributed to the critical ethnographic approach, through which refugees’ everyday struggle is explored, additionally, that was incorporated with the analysis of Syrians’ Facebook groups and formal sources.

The research paper concluded that everyday struggle strategies are considered as political acts by acquiring rights that many self-settled Syrian refugees are stripped of by international humanitarian agencies and host government. Hence, registered and unregistered refugees equally forge what is called “informal citizenship” through their presence via a blend of agency forms ranging from hidden agency to explicit one and via their incorporating into the informal contexts, leading them to carve a position of semi-legality that help them to circumvent the formal structural hardship.

This paper endeavors to study how urban refugees as change agents can convert their illegal presence to “probably refugeeness” to unsettle the prominent recognition of them as illegal non-citizens in southern cities.

Disaster risk reduction is of prime importance in informal settlements in the Global South, where several forms of vulnerability coexist. Policy and official programmes, however, rarely respond to the needs and expectations of citizens and local leaders living in these settlements. Even though these agents constantly attempt to reduce risks in their own way, we know very little about their activities, motivations and effective impact on risk reduction. Here we seek to conceptualize bottom-up initiatives to better grasp their origins, limitations and success.

Through a four-year action-research project in Colombia, Cuba and Chile, we theorize about the production of change by local agents. Through detailed case studies we explored the activism of 17 local leaders. Through narrative analysis we studied their motivations and explanations. Finally, by documenting 22 initiatives, we revealed effective changes in space.

In the face of risk and disasters, residents and leaders in informal settings engaged in symbolic, physical and social spaces of interaction. Their actions were guided by trust, emotions, time cycles and activism. Local agency was justified by narratives about risk and climate change that differ from those of authorities and scholars.

There is still limited understanding of bottom-up initiatives in informal settings. It is crucial to conceptualize their origins, limitations and success. The focus on three specific countries necessitates further research for broader applicability and understanding.

A better comprehension of bottom-up actions is crucial for informing policies and programmes aimed at reducing risk in informal settings. Stakeholders must recognize the political, social and cultural roles of these actions for more impactful climate action.

We borrow Simon’s concept of “artefact” to introduce the notion of “Artefacts of Disaster Risk Reduction”, providing insights into the multifaceted nature of bottom-up initiatives. We also emphasize the simultaneous political and phenomenological character of these actions, contributing to a deeper understanding of their origins and impact.

This paper aims to further our understanding of policy–practice gaps in organizations from an organizational learning perspective. The authors conceptualize and analyze policy–practice gaps in terms of what they label the dual challenge of organizational learning, i.e. the organizational tasks of both adapting ongoing practices to prescribed policy demands and adapting the policy itself to the needs of practice. Specifically, the authors address how this dual challenge can be understood in terms of organizational learning and how an organization can be managed to successfully resolve the dual learning challenge and, thereby, bridge policy–practice gaps in organizations.

This paper draws on existing literature to explore the gap between policy and practice. Through a synthesis of theories and an illustrative practical example, this paper highlights key conceptual underpinnings.

In the analysis of the dual challenge of organizational learning, this study provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes the important role of tensions and contradictions between policy and practice and their role as drivers of organizational learning. To bridge policy–practice gaps in organizations, this paper proposes five key principles that aim to resolve the dual challenge and accommodate both deployment and discovery in organizations.

Because this is a conceptual study, empirical research is called for to explore further and test the findings and conclusions of the study. Several avenues of possible future research are proposed.

This paper primarily contributes by introducing and elaborating on a conceptual framework that offers novel perspectives on the dual challenges of facilitating both discovery and deployment processes within organizations.