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1 – 10 of over 30000Ryan Leibowitz, Dustin K. Grabsch, Dedeepya Chinnam, Hannah Webb and Sheri Kunovich
The purpose of this study is to understand the differences in motivations, advantages, disadvantages and time of multiple-major awareness among students who pursue multiple majors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand the differences in motivations, advantages, disadvantages and time of multiple-major awareness among students who pursue multiple majors based on a set of defined characteristics. The student characteristics of interest included race, gender, financial aid status, class standing, transfer status, first-generation status and the number of majors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors administered a survey instrument to a random sample of multiple-major undergraduate students to gauge the prevalence of motivations, advantages, disadvantages and time of multiple-major awareness themes developed during individual interviews.
Findings
Statistical analysis revealed significant differences among multiple-major students based on characteristics of interest. Results discussed at length include transfer students deriving higher levels of motivation from degree practicality than nontransfer students and students who receive financial aid indicating multiple passions as a primary motivation more frequently than students not receiving financial aid. Similar differences between male and female students are uncovered relating to perceived advantages of diverse interactions and experiences and increased balance, as well as perceived disadvantages of time commitment and ability to grow professionally. Finally, first-generation students learned about multiple majoring later than non-first-generation students.
Originality/value
This study builds on previous research regarding multiple-major students, an understudied yet important population in higher education. Additionally, it delves deeper by exploring differences in this population by student characteristics.
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Rachel Moreton, Jo Welford, Beth Collinson, Laura Greason and Chris Milner
This paper aims to explore the barriers to accessing mental health support for people experiencing multiple disadvantage along with some potential solutions for attempting to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the barriers to accessing mental health support for people experiencing multiple disadvantage along with some potential solutions for attempting to overcome these. It draws on evidence and learning from 12 voluntary sector-led partnerships in England funded by the National Lottery Community Fund’s Fulfilling Lives programme.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative research was undertaken with frontline staff, senior leaders, volunteers, beneficiaries and stakeholders from Fulfilling Lives partnerships. This comprised focus groups (21 participants) and individual face-to-face interviews (41 participants), both of which explored barriers and local solutions to accessing statutory mental health services. Following a thematic analysis of transcripts, research participants and stakeholders were invited to a face-to-face workshop to review and validate emerging findings (34 participants).
Findings
People experiencing multiple disadvantage face significant barriers in accessing support for their mental health. These include a complex system that is difficult to navigate, long waiting lists, high eligibility thresholds and models of support that lack flexibility. Fulfilling Lives partnerships have had the funding and the flexibility to trial different approaches. Promising solutions to barriers include the use of navigators, person-centred support and multi-agency networks and training. However, overcoming systemic barriers remains the most difficult challenge.
Originality/value
Fulfilling Lives was a rare example of substantial and long-term (eight years) funding to work with people experiencing multiple disadvantage. This provided a unique opportunity to try different approaches and gather learning. The programme evaluation provides insights into the experiences of people facing multiple disadvantage and those who support them and offers evidence-based suggestions for policy and practice.
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Konstantinos Spyropoulos, Christopher James Gidlow, Fiona McCormack, Andy Meakin, Rachele Hine and Sophia Fedorowicz
This paper reports the use of situational analysis as a systems methodology to evaluate the voices of independence change and empowerment in the Stoke-on-Trent (VOICES…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reports the use of situational analysis as a systems methodology to evaluate the voices of independence change and empowerment in the Stoke-on-Trent (VOICES) partnership project.
Design/methodology/approach
Using situational analysis and drawing on a range of secondary data sources, a three-stage conceptual mapping process provided a detailed picture of both the non-linear interlinkage and complexity of the local system that VOICES was working to influence, as well as the processes that shaped the experiences of those who act within the situation.
Findings
Data highlighted the systemic challenges facing VOICES customers (e.g. stigma and marginalisation and lack of legal literacy), progress made by VOICES in each of their priority areas and an overarching theme of VOICES promoting equity (rather than equality) to address failure demand in the system of support for people with multiple needs and disadvantage.
Originality/value
The authors present the novel application of situational analysis to demonstrate a substantial impact of VOICES while demonstrating the value of this methodology for complex systems thinking research and evaluation.
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This paper aims to remove the self-evidence of the concept of severe and multiple disadvantage (SMD) by drawing upon a historical as well as a critical perspective to show its…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to remove the self-evidence of the concept of severe and multiple disadvantage (SMD) by drawing upon a historical as well as a critical perspective to show its contingency.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper will introduce the concept of SMD by examining how it has come to be understood in the way that it has. This paper does so by exploring key texts which have informed the development of the concept as well as its conceptual near neighbours such as “multiple needs”. This paper traces some advancements of the concept within practice and further research with a focus on the Fulfilling Lives programme and the Lankelly Chase Foundation. Finally, the author reflects critically upon the concept and the manner in which the concept has become operationalised.
Findings
This analysis demonstrates how a particular definition of SMD has come to dominate over the past few years because of the research and practice of key organisations. On the one hand, this has further marginalised alternative definitions and ways of working, but on the other hand these stakeholders have been able to influence the way in which UK policy has taken up the concept within its governmental priorities.
Originality/value
To date, research has taken the term SMD for granted which limits the ability to critique its definitions and applications. This is an important and timely contribution because concepts are all-too-often taken for granted and at a pivotal moment when SMD has become nationalised through policy, critique is a political, potentially transformative, act.
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Charlotte Cooke, Kate Jones, Rebecca Rieley and Sandra Sylvester
The purpose of this paper is to consider how a South East project approached systems change to improve unsupported temporary accommodation (UTA) and the changes made for people…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider how a South East project approached systems change to improve unsupported temporary accommodation (UTA) and the changes made for people experiencing multiple disadvantage (“multiple and complex needs”). This paper also covers some matters that are hard to change or uncertain, such as housing shortages and financial constraints. The paper focuses on a case study of the East Sussex Temporary Accommodation Action Group (TAAG) – a multi-agency action group.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study involving a thematic analysis of seven semi-structured interviews, with a review of published literature and internal documentation.
Findings
This example of setting up a TAAG shows us the value of having a dedicated forum to look at a part of the system that requires changing and to identify what works well. Creating a collaborative and democratic space with a common purpose brings different stakeholders and perspectives together and opens discussions to new ways of working. Equalising partners creates an opportunity to create change from the bottom-up within a system traditionally governed by statutory bodies. This study found that the TAAG has facilitated learning around trauma-informed practice and nurtured more sustainable changes towards a Standards Charter and women-only safe UTA.
Originality/value
This is one of the first qualitative case studies of a local systems change approach to improving UTA for people experiencing multiple disadvantage in East Sussex.
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Shuangfa Huang, David Pickernell, Martina Battisti, Zoe Dann and Carol Ekinsmyth
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are tasked with driving economic recovery globally, particularly through knowledge diffusion and consequently, government policy-makers…
Abstract
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are tasked with driving economic recovery globally, particularly through knowledge diffusion and consequently, government policy-makers strive to encourage innovation activity to benefit their economies. Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) are increasingly used as a framework through which such policies are funnelled, but an increased focus on high-growth, scale-up entrepreneurship risks overlooking the effects of entrepreneurship on social groups affected by multiple sets of disadvantage. This chapter identifies and analyses the existing research on disadvantaged entrepreneurship and the EE via a systematic review of the literature and then briefly outlines how the chapters contained within this book seek to address the gaps found.
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Beth Fouracre, Joseph Fisher, Richard Bolden, Beth Coombs, Beth Isaac and Chris Pawson
The purpose of this paper is to present insights into the way in which system change can be activated around the provision of services and support for people experiencing multiple…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present insights into the way in which system change can be activated around the provision of services and support for people experiencing multiple disadvantages in an urban setting.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is informed by a thematic analysis of reflections, reports, learning logs, interviews and experiences of those “activating” system change in the Golden Key partnership in Bristol between 2014 and 2021.
Findings
Four themes are identified, including “creating the conditions for change”, “framing your involvement”, “investing in relationships” and “reflective practice and learning”. For each of these, an illustrative vignette is provided.
Practical implications
Practical recommendations and reflective questions are provided with suggestions of further considerations for applying this approach in different contexts.
Originality/value
This paper describes an original approach of activating and supporting people to do system change to improve the lives of people facing multiple disadvantages.
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The purpose of this study is to contribute to the debates of “doing” intersectionality in practice. The authors explore two of the primary approaches to researching from an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the debates of “doing” intersectionality in practice. The authors explore two of the primary approaches to researching from an intersectional perspective with the intention of critically reviewing the emancipatory potential of each. They argue for plurality and diversity of approaches in working toward a shared emancipatory goal.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors set up the debate via an exploration of emancipatory research principles. Based on their research experience the authors then critically reflect on the approaches to intersectionality research from the social constructionist and critical realist perspectives.
Findings
The authors find that both approaches to intersectionality research have benefits and limitations in achieving emancipation for disadvantaged people in organizations. A critical realist approach underpinned by quantitative analysis of patterns within fixed multiple identity categories offers a convincing emancipatory case which can stimulate management action. However, it does not give prominence to the dynamic and political nature of the construction of “difference” in organizations. Social constructionist approaches address this weakness, but the wider patterns of disadvantage tend to have less prominence in the analysis. Accordingly, the policy implications can be less clear and the case for action less convincing.
Research limitations/implications
The authors provide material that contributes to debates of how to “do” intersectionality as a method. They acknowledge limitations in their argument supporting a critical realist approach from both methodological and emancipatory perspectives.
Originality/value
They call for consideration of pluralism in research approaches to exploit the emancipatory potential of diverse forms of research.
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Charlotta Niemistö, Jeff Hearn, Mira Karjalainen and Annamari Tuori
Privilege is often silent, invisible and not made explicit, and silence is a key question for theorizing on organizations. This paper examines interrelations between privilege and…
Abstract
Purpose
Privilege is often silent, invisible and not made explicit, and silence is a key question for theorizing on organizations. This paper examines interrelations between privilege and silence for relatively privileged professionals in high-intensity knowledge businesses (KIBs).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on 112 interviews in two rounds of interviews using the collaborative interactive action research method. The analysis focuses on processes of recruitment, careers and negotiation of boundaries between work and nonwork in these KIBs. The authors study how relative privilege within social inequalities connects with silences in multiple ways, and how the invisibility of privilege operates at different levels: individual identities and interpersonal actions of privilege (micro), as organizational level phenomena (meso) or as societally constructed (macro).
Findings
At each level, privilege is reproduced in part through silence. The authors also examine how processes connecting silence, privilege and social inequalities operate differently in relation to both disadvantage and the disadvantaged, and privilege and the privileged.
Originality/value
This study is relevant for organization studies, especially in the kinds of “multi-privileged” contexts where inequalities, disadvantages and subordination may remain hidden and silenced, and, thus, are continuously reproduced.
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Chris Pawson, Richard Bolden, Beth Isaac, Joseph Fisher, Hannah Mahoney and Sandeep Saprai
The purpose of this paper is to present a case study tracking the development and engagement of a group of experts by experience (The Independent Futures (IF) Group) who provided…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a case study tracking the development and engagement of a group of experts by experience (The Independent Futures (IF) Group) who provided a lived experience voice to the Bristol Golden Key (GK) partnership within the Fulfilling Lives programme. The case study reports the genesis and impact of the group, as well as the facilitators of impact and experiences of the group members and those they worked in partnership with.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted an iterative approach drawing on multiple data sources over an eight-year period. An inductive ethnographic analysis of stakeholder and partnership meetings was combined with documentary analysis and thematic analysis of interviews with experts by experience and service providers.
Findings
The voice of lived experience provided by the IF group contributed to the GK partnership through various channels. Evidence of this contribution and its impact was found at programme, city-wide and national levels of the service ecosystem. Furthermore, IF members recognised the value of the group in contributing to systems change and service improvement, but also for themselves.
Practical implications
This case study serves to illustrate the impact of the lived experience voice on services and systems change, specifically the provision of that voice from a formalised advisory group. The successes and challenges of the group and the experiences of its members are reported with a view to sharing learning that may influence future co-production initiatives with experts by experience and service provision for those experiencing multiple disadvantage.
Originality/value
The insights provided by the longitudinal observation of the group as it was formed and evolved, coupled with insights provided by the experts by experience, have important implications for facilitating and supporting sustainable lived experience input.
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