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This paper examines the efforts of National Health Service (England) (NHSE) to respond to employee-based racial inequalities via its Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES). The WRES constitutes a hybridised accountability initiative with characteristics of the moral and imposed regimes of accountability.

The study conceptualises the notion of responsive race accountability with recourse to Favotto et al.’s (2022) moral accountability model and critical race theory (CRT), and through it, examines the enactment of WRES at 40 NHSE trusts using qualitative content analysis.

Despite the progressive nature of the WRES that seeks to nurture corrective actions, results suggest that trusts tend to adopt an instrumental approach to the exercise. Whilst there is some evidence of good practice, the instrumental approach prevails across both the metric reporting that trusts engage in to guide their actions, and the planned actions for progress. These planned actions not only often fail to coalesce with the trust-specific data but also include generic NHSE or equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives and mimetic adoptions of best practice guidance that only superficially address racial concerns.

Whilst the WRES is a laudable voluntary achievement, its moral imperative does not appear to have translated into a moral accountability within individual trusts.

Responding to calls for more research at the accounting-race nexus, this study uniquely draws on CRT to conceptualise and examine race accountability.

The study aims to analyse the race towards green development and United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the cases of Huawei and Shell. Both companies are the leaders in their respective industries. Huawei is an example case study representing the information and communications technology (ICT) industry whereas Shell is an example case study representing the oil and gas industry. The research analyses of the races in achieving UN SDGs were undertaken based on the innovation diffusion framework with the use of machine learning algorithms trained to extract data on sustainability activities and initiatives.

The research analyses the two case studies of Huawei and Shell. The research was undertaken through the steps of training machine learning algorithms, industry benchmarking and evaluating the performance of the race. The analyses regarding the activities and initiatives of Huawei and Shell in contributing towards SDGs are based on the data in the past 10 years (Years 2010–2019) using machine learning to extract data on sustainability activities and initiatives. In the case of Huawei, 313 sustainability reports were fed to the unsupervised machine learning algorithms revealing 15,101 sustainability actions and initiatives related to UN SDGs in the ICT industry. In the case of Shell, 2,015 sustainability reports were fed to the unsupervised machine learning algorithms revealing 47,365 sustainability actions and initiatives related to UN SDGs in the oil and gas industry.

The analyses of findings revealed that Huawei and Shell performed very well in progressing towards the UN SDGs. Huawei had strong performance in the ICT industry with regard to SDGs No. 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 16 while Shell had strong performance in the oil and gas industry with regard to SDGs No. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 16. Both companies had placed a focus on achieving SDG 12 responsible consumption and production, SDG 7 affordable and clean energy and SDG 4 quality education. The synthesised business model innovations of Huawei and Shell had shown their environmental, social and governance strategies – Huawei’s 2030 vision for green development and Shell’s 2050 vision for net zero emissions.

The five pillars of people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership according to the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development have shown the way a company operates to promote sustainable eco-systems. The extent to which both Huawei and Shell link corporate strategies to the UN SDGs has reflected their implementation progress. Furthermore, the business model innovations of Huawei and Shell provides a useful framework which can be applied to encourage other companies/organisations in various industries to undertake ESG activities in practice.

The main contribution of this research is the application of machine learning algorithms and the innovation diffusion model in analysing the SDGs performance. The study applies the innovation diffusion framework to explore strategic actions and initiatives of Huawei and Shell in transitioning towards sustainability. The use of machine learning algorithms has identified their sustainability approach in achieving the UN SDGs.

This study explores the social conditions for sustainability practices, addressing the processes whereby associational gardening practices in a highly segregated context may or may not create connections and capacities across urban social divides.

Based on organizational ethnographic fieldwork, the article explores urban gardens as potential meeting places in a segregated city, Gothenburg, focusing on collectively organized gardening projects in different socioeconomic and socio-spatial settings.

The study identifies the unintentional encounters embedded in the immaterial act of gardening, that is, digging, planting and actual gardening practices regardless of the harvest. Such practices were found to be important for social sustainability practices beyond the continuous reproduction of silos, at least in multicultural settings. Nevertheless, many urban gardeners create a green living room for themselves and their neighbours, and engagement with those outside their silos often becomes more of a symbolic act of global solidarity, especially in more culturally homogeneous areas.

The article fills a gap in the research by focusing on the social conditions for sustainability practices in urban segregated areas. By showing how gardening practices often reproduce cultural similarity, the study highlights the importance of revealing practices and places that facilitate unintentional social “bonus” interactions that nonetheless occur in two of the gardening environments studied. Unintentional encounters are identified as important dimensions of social sustainability practices.

This case study delves into the evolving landscape of equity, inclusion and diversity (EID) initiatives within the health-care sector, with a specific focus on the “EverybodyIN” program implemented at the Mayo Clinic, a large academic Medical Center in the USA. Against the backdrop of growing awareness catalyzed by societal events, this case study aims to explore the multifaceted aspects of workplace conversations aimed at addressing racial disparities and fostering a more inclusive environment.

The case study relies on the application of critical race theory and a social constructionist approach to investigate the impact of a subset of voluntary educational conversations that were centered on the Black/African-American experience, on staff members’ racial understanding and allyship within the health-care organization. Through thematic analysis of postevent surveys and participant sentiments, three overarching themes emerged: appreciation, education and validation.

Through thematic analysis of postevent surveys and participant sentiments, three overarching themes emerged: appreciation, education and validation. The findings underscore the pivotal role of leadership buy-in, evidence-based practices, health equity and an ongoing commitment to “the journey” in successful EID efforts. The results highlight the significance of integrating EID into health-care organizations as a continuous endeavor that aligns with organizational values and mission.

The findings underscore the pivotal role that theory and practice play through a newly described framework that includes leadership buy-in, evidence-based practices, health equity and an ongoing commitment to “the journey” for successful EID efforts.

The results highlight the significance of integrating EID into health-care organizations as a continuous endeavor that aligns with organizational values and mission.

By fostering a safe and informed space for dialogue, organizations can empower staff to engage authentically and acquire cultural competence that may contribute to advancing health equity.

This paper aims to provide an in-depth examination of culturally and linguistically diverse older adults’ perceptions of and experiences with the Toronto Police Service to inform the development of a training curriculum for police officers working with older persons.

A qualitative descriptive study using virtual focus groups with 26 older adults from Toronto was conducted.

Three main themes emerged: understanding intersectionality; the impact of police officer attitudes and biases; and the need for age-friendly policing. Although many older adults rely on police services to keep them safe, there is dissatisfaction with some aspects of how police interact with older adults, particularly from minority groups.

Participants were older adults from culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds who are not usually included in studies on improving police services.

Social media provides a platform for people to connect, communicate and share their opinions, and has become a powerful gizmo for freedom of expression as well as freedom of speech. The present study intends to examine the role of social media in instigating hateful thoughts, actions among youth and eventually leading them towards hate speech.

Mixed methods were adopted to achieve the objectives, where survey (quantitative) and focus group discussions (qualitative) were carried out. The students who participated were from different universities, campuses and faith-based schools in Indonesia. They were recruited through online and offline sources where they showed their interest in participating in this study. Participants were 19–30 years old. Data was analysed by deploying the narrations, thematic (based on themes), and univariate analysis.

In the present research, three attributes of hate speech were investigated, such as form of expression, discrimination and identity factors. The findings of the study show that the prevalence of hate speech among youth in Indonesia is associated with their belongingness to political ideology, identity, nationality and ethnicity.

The objective is to examine the prevalence and nature of hate speech among youth in Indonesia, identify the factors and reasons for engaging in hate speech and assess the potential impacts of hate speech.

This research attempts to analyse the role of social media in shaping the mindset of the youth towards hate speech, which ultimately leads to delinquency.

Intersectionality addresses complex avenues of oppression that emanate at the intersections of one’s identities. However, the intersectional framework assumes static identities, which are increasingly being acknowledged for their fluidity. This research explored the extent of the fluidity of social identities to draw implications for the application of the framework in research.

27 participants from a post-graduate elective course on diversity and inclusion identified their significant social identities, and submitted a write-up using hermeneutic phenomenology in which the participants shared their lived experiences of the fluidity of their social identities in different spaces they occupy or find themselves in.

Fluidity-triggering stimuli in different environments and their associations with identity-related motives were uncovered using thematic analysis. Stimuli operating at micro-, meso- and macro-levels rationally explained identity fluidity. However, in addition to types, intensity and frequency of stimuli, psychological factors, such as identity status, were decisive in determining the degree of generalization of stimuli across individuals and spaces that significantly influenced identity fluidity.

This research explored the extent of the fluidity of social identities to draw implications for the application of the intersectional framework in research. The findings contribute to future research by identifying limitations of the intersectional framework based on the fluidity of social identities arising from environmental stimuli that operate at micro-, meso- and macro-levels, and the extent of psychological generalization of these stimuli across spaces.

This study explores the effect of language on service satisfaction among Finland-Swedes, a national minority language group in Finland, in the context of early childhood education. Models of public service satisfaction hold standard process and outcome related factors, such as availability and quality, as drivers of the satisfaction. However, although research has shown significant variation in satisfaction between different groups of citizens (race, ethnicity, age etc.), research has largely overlooked group specific factors as explanations for the satisfaction.

A randomized survey experiment with a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design analyzed the impacts of language, service accessibility, and quality on service satisfaction. The data was analyzed with ANOVA.

The results revealed that language significantly impacts Swedish speakers’ satisfaction, suggesting that for minority groups, language may override typical satisfaction determinants like quality and accessibility. Interestingly, special linguistic needs are relatively more pertinent in low-quality services than in higher-quality ones.

The study shows how group related factors of public service, in our case language, in an important factor explaining satisfaction with the service. The findings have implications for the literature on citizens’ satisfaction with public services with demographic and identity facets, especially in a typical Nordic welfare state.

This paper aims to explore practice innovation and organizational resiliency during exogenous service ecosystem disruptions. This inquiry focuses on the extreme disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required service firms to recodify long-established service scripts, adapt digital and physical material elements of the service encounter and ultimately reconfigure a system of practices. The specific context is forced practice innovation in Starbucks servicescape (kiosks and coffeehouses). Starbucks is best known for its custom beverages and third-place strategy. Their strict adherence to a complex service script and unique ordering practices altered during pandemic stay-home disease prevention mandates.

Thematic coding consistent with prior research on practice innovation and diffusion and a grounded theory methodology was conducted. Data were triangulated and analyzed within and across a variety of sources. These include field notes from direct observation, interviews, focus groups, firm-authored collateral in the form of marketing communications and third-party authored secondary sources such as news, social media, blogs and forums.

Data reveal how practice innovation occurs through the reconfiguration of a system of practices, which support organizational resiliency and can force brand evolution, in prolonged exogenous service ecosystem disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic required service industries to adapt and recodify service scripts and alter physical and digital elements of service encounters. While the pandemic affected all firms in the sector, we argue that Starbucks' established scripts and third-place strategies, which characterized the brand experience, were particularly vulnerable. We find that practice innovation occurs through the reconfiguration of practice elements – competences, meanings and materiality – and restructures the service encounter. Practice codification, transposition, adaptation and stabilization support organizational resiliency and brand evolution. We find that Starbucks' brand experience emphasis on the third place is reconceptualized from an in-person community-based retailscape to a platform-based strategy necessitating script recodification and practice adaptation. Our analysis of Starbucks' kiosks and coffeehouses illuminates how a distinctly branded service encounter is constituted by a system of practices that can be reconfigured and diffused anew in the face of disruption.

The conceptualization of practice innovation as systems reconfiguration establishes a novel approach to understanding innovation in service ecosystems. The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique context to study a sector-wide exogenous extended service disruption. We focus on a firm with an elaborate pre-pandemic service script and commitment to a third-place brand experience guiding its system of practices. We reveal unique insights on practice innovation within service ecosystems during exogenous prolonged disruptions in which brands evolve through the recodification of service scripts and sustained reconfiguration of systems of practice.

Tracing the development of a parallel-engaged pedagogy of care that extended and adapted the critical and transformative pedagogies of Freire, De Sousa Santos and hooks to the South African context. The development of this transformative pedagogy addresses the local conditions of an architectural design studio at a postcolonial, post-Apartheid and post “Fees must Fall” protests South African university. This pedagogy used practice-based design research to build a more conscious, critical and careful design practice in both students and educators.

The pedagogy was developed through participatory action research, over five years, from 2019 to 2023 including two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Parallel and active engagement of students and educators within a nurturing and caring environment evolved from year to year, through a conscious and critical reflection on the process. Student surveys, reflective essays and focus groups unearth the impact of the parallel-engaged pedagogy of care.

The parallel-engaged pedagogy of care was shown to support and scaffold students becoming more conscious, critical and careful in their design practices validating diverse lived experiences as generative for design and important for social justice and transformative equity.

The parallel-engaged pedagogy of care is part of a global shift to more transformative pedagogies that address student diversity and decoloniality.

Through dismantling traditional hierarchical teaching modes, the pedagogy is more student-led, agile and adaptable. Through centring and demonstrating care in the pedagogy, students are encouraged to develop both self-care and care in their design practice. This is especially critical in the South African context where the cultural capital of the institution, with its roots in colonial and Apartheid education differs from that of the majority of students of colour.