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There are two broad approaches in the literature to studying challenges faced in multicultural teams. One approach is to examine the effects of demographic differences among individual team members (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age) on group process. This literature supports the notion that compositional heterogeneity can be both positive and negative in terms of successful group process (Ely & Thomas, 2001). On one hand, heterogeneity increases the chances that a group will bring a wide range of experiences and consider multiple perspectives in solving problems (Ancona & Caldwell, 1992; Jehn et al., 1999). On the other, heterogeneity makes it more difficult for groups to establish effective group process. For example, it is more difficult for heterogeneous groups to communicate and to develop work norms (Bettenhausen & Murnighan, 1985). They are also more prone to conflict (Jehn & Mannix, 2001; Jehn et al., 1999). So, although the theoretical benefits of diversity to pool unique perspectives and resources exist, they are more difficult to attain and sustain in practice.

The emergence of gender-nonconforming behavior in a child presents an opportunity and, often, significant pressure for parents to question the gender beliefs they have taken for granted. The purpose of this research is to examine how parents of gender-diverse youth respond to such pressures and ultimately come to understand and support their children’s gender identity.

This research is guided by Ridgeway’s theoretical concept of gender as a primary frame for coordinating social life. Using in-depth interviews with 36 supportive parents of gender-diverse children, the author details the process by which parents developed a critical consciousness of gender and subsequently adopted trans-affirming beliefs in response to their children’s gender-nonconformity.

Findings illustrate the power of gender as a primary frame for organizing life within the family as well as the circumstances under which hegemonic gender beliefs can be disrupted and alternative beliefs can be formed. The analysis shows that the process of making space for gender diversity within the home, which is taken on almost exclusively by mothers, invokes competing maternal mandates of raising “proper” children versus modeling selfless devotion to children’s happiness and well-being. As mothers navigate these conflicting requirements to create greater gender freedom for their children, they reinforce and perpetuate gender stereotypes that cast women as natural caregivers. Ironically, the work of intensive mothering is also the mechanism through which women come to develop alternative gender beliefs that they then use to expand gender possibilities for their children.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate consumption discourses in contexts characterized by multiple cultures and intercultural contacts, as multicultural contacts and multiple migrations challenge existing consumer acculturation models based on a dualistic process of acculturation. This chapter explores empirically the character of cultural reflexivity and its expression in consumers’ discourses. Given that nostalgia is one prominent dimension of the migration conceptualization, we seek to understand how the role of nostalgia changes in contexts where consumers are decreasingly territorially embedded agents.

Methodology – The study rests on in-depth analysis of migrant narratives from two research phases. While the first phase encompasses in-depth interviews, the second one combines interviews and observations to provide a depiction of intercultural contact within the micro cosmos of a multicultural apartment.

Findings – The findings of this chapter illustrate how migrants develop different nostalgic discourses, to either (re-)appropriate the Expatriate as defined by James (1999), or to appropriate global consumptionscapes through nostalgia for the routine.

Research implications – On the basis of these findings, the article discusses cultural reflexivity in terms of naturalization and cultivation narratives (Wilk, 1999), proposing shifts between reflexive and routinized consumption practices as basis for consumers’ cultural reflexivity.

Originality/value of chapter – The contribution of this chapter is firstly a contextualized and empirically grounded definition of cultural reflexivity. Secondly, it demonstrates that migrants’ consumption discourses revolve more around disruptions of routines than around acculturation processes. Thirdly, the chapter illustrates the use of nostalgia for emotional valorization of cultures beyond classical home cultural authenticity discourses.

To determine the health status of women before, during, and after the war, and to explore women’s perceived health needs and current access to healthcare.

Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted in urban and rural areas. A total of 52 women participated in the study (N = 52; Individual Interviews, n = 12; Focus Group Participants, n = 40).

Women’s health concerns and healthcare needs overlap between the rural and urban communities. The women reported the needs for empowerment in the forms of social support groups for health, specialists for women’s health, education, resources, prevention, financial support to look for medical services, and mental health issues.

Since these focus groups and interviews were conducted, the women have continued to meet. The strength of these meetings is represented in the forms of preparing a meal, eating, and socializing in unity. The social support experienced in these gatherings allows the women to openly express their issues, fears, concerns, joys, and successes. The CBPR approach is an important necessity when working with vulnerable populations. There were some inherent limitations due to economic issues to support the gatherings, transportation, and health-related complications that may have prevented women from attending.

Disparate health outcomes and biologic–environmental interactions are represented in female survivors of war. Their issues began or were exacerbated during war and continue today. In the future, we seek to identify and establish a culturally and gender-specific intervention for health access, prevention, maintenance, and improvements.

The recent financial and sovereign debt crises around the world have sparked a growing literature on models and empirical estimates of defaultable debt. Frequently households and firms come under default threat, local governments can default, and recently sovereign default threats were eminent for Greece and Spain in 2012–2013. Moreover, Argentina experienced an actual default in 2001. What causes sovereign default risk, and what are the escape routes from default risk? Previous studies such as Arellano (2008), Roch and Uhlig (2013), and Arellano et al. (2014) have provided theoretical models to explore the main dynamics of sovereign defaults. These models can be characterized as threshold models in which there is a convergence toward a good no-default equilibrium below the threshold and a default equilibrium above the threshold. However, in these models aggregate output is exogenous, so that important macroeconomic feedback effects are not taken into account. In this chapter, we (1) propose alternative model variants suitable for certain types of countries in the EU where aggregate output is endogenously determined and where financial stress plays a key role, (2) show how these model variants can be solved through the Nonlinear Model Predictive Control numerical technique, and (3) present some empirical evidence on the nonlinear dynamics of output, sovereign debt, and financial stress in some euro areas and other industrialized countries.

This chapter describes a case study of a multidisciplinary approach to the complex social issue of teaching English to multilingual tertiary students in a pluralistic context. It does this by advancing an innovative multilingual pedagogy combining specific aspects of Commedia dell’Arte (Di Niro) and translanguaging (Viljoen) to cross boundaries between languages and cultures for effectively teaching. This is achieved through an examination of Di Niro’s course structure, written reflections and observations of teaching students “English for Business Studies” at the University of South Australia (UniSA). Reflections are arranged and interpreted around three themes: multilingualism, game play, and physicality/embodied learning. Following O’Neill and Viljoen (2021, p. 1), the authors argue that “such reflection is not simply contemplative, but involves dynamic, transforming and reflexive processes of accessing” the lived-experience of language and culture of the teacher and students in an engaged and responsive learning dialogue. Commedia dell’Arte includes multilingualism, improvisation, gesture, role-play and extending students to develop socio-political dialogue. Translanguaging involves foregrounding and affirming the home language of multilingual students of English while also developing their English. Blending these methodologies and methods enables the authors to simultaneously address practical and theoretical aspects of teaching in a multilingual classroom.