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1 – 10 of 142Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst, Holly Thorpe and Megan Chawansky
There are many ways for young people to get involved with their communities, but Community participation is one of the most important ways. As a way of expressing their…
Abstract
There are many ways for young people to get involved with their communities, but Community participation is one of the most important ways. As a way of expressing their commitment, young people form political and social action groups, devise educational initiatives tailored to their interests, and serve as community activists. This study was carried out in Myanmar prior to the military takeover in 2021. A military coup protest was organized by CEC (Chief Executive Committees). In addition, the majority of the committee members advocate for democratic values in this era. For the purpose of this study, researchers looked into which factors had the greatest impact on the participation of youth affairs committee members in their communities. Mon State was chosen as the study site because the median age of the population there is 26.7 years old. The 2014 Census revealed a range of median ages that is lower than this one. It shows that the median age of Mon state's youth affairs committee members is lower than the state's overall median age. In addition, the state of Mon was home to three major ethnicities: the Mon, the Kayan, and the Burmese. This situation demonstrates that young people have settled in Mon state with a wide range of viewpoints and ideas. The 131 members of Mon state's youth affairs committee were selected from each of the state's three levels of youth affairs committee. The data collected was analyzed using linear regression and descriptive methods. It was discovered that the community involvement of young leaders is positively influenced by social, political & legal factors.
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This paper aims to explore how environmental employment can promote desistance among criminalised children. Research demonstrates that being immersed in and interacting with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how environmental employment can promote desistance among criminalised children. Research demonstrates that being immersed in and interacting with the natural environment has a positive impact upon well-being and behaviour, including reduced aggressive and violent behaviours. However, how exposure to the natural environment might promote desistance amongst children with persistent criminal involvement is unclear.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines, through semi-structured interviews and participant observations, the experiences of n = 23 criminalised children aged 16–18 employed in outdoor work at a UK social enterprise.
Findings
The findings demonstrate how working in the natural environment can provide a safe space for children, where they can build positive relationships, learn valuable skills and reconnect with the world outside of the high-pressure, conflict-driven spaces in which they typically occupy.
Originality/value
This research highlights the relevance of the setting in which child rehabilitation takes place and the potential role of natural environments in providing places and opportunities which support pro-social identity development and desistance for children.
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Murray Drummond, Sam Elliott, Claire Drummond and Ivanka Prichard
This conceptual/study protocol paper provides important context around the role of sport in Australia where sport provides aspects of community agency through participation…
Abstract
This conceptual/study protocol paper provides important context around the role of sport in Australia where sport provides aspects of community agency through participation, organisation and volunteerism. It provides a descriptive analysis of how sport assists young people in developing physical and mental ”fitness” through its community orientation. However, it also provides discussion around the potential of a “generation lost” to sport as a consequence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The conceptual nature of this paper means that the data collection underpinning this research has not yet been conducted. However, given that we have applied for human research ethics along with having accrued sporting clubs and organisations eager to be involved in the research, we are planning to roll out this research by mid 2020. The design will be based on mixed methods approach whereby large-scale surveys together with focus groups and interviews will be central to the research data collection process. This research is unique given the nature of the time in which it exists. The last global pandemic was around 100 years ago when sport did not play such a significant role in society. Understanding the implications of the pandemic on young people and to the sporting clubs and organisations will be key in re-establishing sport as a central component of community agency towards the physical and mental health of young people. The urgency of understanding this is key to assisting the loss of potential young people to sport and the benefits that go with it to the individual, the community, and society as a whole.
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Asunción Llena Berñe, Anna Planas-Lladó, Carles Vila-Mumbrú and Paloma Valdivia-Vizarreta
This study aims to identify the contextual and relational factors that enhance and limit the empowerment of young people from the perspective of social education professionals.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify the contextual and relational factors that enhance and limit the empowerment of young people from the perspective of social education professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model made it possible to locate the narratives of the educators in the territory. These narratives include field diaries, i.e. hybrid narratives that include visual, written and spoken materials, and focus groups with 11 educators from different fields of action and related to youth empowerment projects.
Findings
According to these educators, the most important factors for empowering young people are their immediate environment, and the issues that affect them most. For these factors to be empowering, young people need to be accompanied, with support based on connectedness, horizontality and the creation of safe spaces and learning experiences. Both the microsystem and the mesosystem form the immediate reality for their action. Aware of this, educators do the work of connecting with the exosystem.
Practical implications
It is evident why communities are spaces with opportunities for youth empowerment, and the authors observe the need for more transversal and less welfare-based social and youth policies that generate empowerment instead of dependency.
Social implications
This methodology evidenced the environmental structures of educators and the dissimilar levels to explore and understand the work of educators and the complex interrelationships, which play an important role in empowerment processes.
Originality/value
This research presents a new perspective that allows traditional qualitative reflection to be embedded in the bioecological model. All of this sheds light on relational ecosystems with young people and proposes youth policies, in this case, oriented towards empowerment.
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Akram Hatami, Jan Hermes, Anne Keränen and Pauliina Ulkuniemi
To respond to recent calls for better understanding of the complexities related to happiness management, especially from the employees' perspective, this study examines how…
Abstract
Purpose
To respond to recent calls for better understanding of the complexities related to happiness management, especially from the employees' perspective, this study examines how corporate volunteering (CV), as one form of corporate social responsibility (CSR), creates sustainable happiness in business organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical knowledge of CSR and CV as well as the literature on happiness management was examined to form a preliminary understanding of the phenomenon. The empirical section includes a qualitative multiple case study including two company cases of CV in Finland. The data were collected through qualitative interviews. Empirical analysis was made using thematical coding based on existing theory but also by allowing themes to emerge inductively from the data as well.
Findings
The study found that CV enables the emergence of sustainable happiness by allowing individual employee volunteers to transition from individual and rational mindsets to collective and emotional mindsets. A third transition was also identified, a process of change in the volunteers' approach in life that the authors describe as “from actual to potential”.
Originality/value
The study provides a theoretical contribution to the existing literature on happiness management by identifying the third dimension, from actual to potential, and depicting the way this allows employees to move from a state of being to becoming and thus the emergence of sustainable happiness. The study also contributes to existing literature on CV and CSR by revealing the way CV, as a form of practical CSR activity, generates happiness. This study concludes that companies' strategic activities that engage with society can create sustainable happiness for employees who participate. In order to achieve this, volunteering employees should have the chance to reflect on their experience and constant support from managers.
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Laura K. Taylor and Celia Bähr
Over 60% of armed conflicts re-occur; the seed of future conflict is sown even as a peace agreement is signed. The cyclical nature of war calls for a focus on youth who can…
Abstract
Purpose
Over 60% of armed conflicts re-occur; the seed of future conflict is sown even as a peace agreement is signed. The cyclical nature of war calls for a focus on youth who can disrupt this pattern over time. Addressing this concern, the developmental peace-building model calls for a dynamic, multi-level and longitudinal approach. Using an innovative statistical approach, this study aims to investigate the associations among four youth peace-building dimensions and quality peace.
Design/methodology/approach
Multi-level time-series network analysis of a data set containing 193 countries and spanning the years between 2011 and 2020 was performed. This statistical approach allows for complex modelling that can reveal new patterns of how different youth peace-building dimensions (i.e. education, engagement, information, inclusion), identified through rapid evidence assessment, promote quality peace over time. Such a methodology not only assesses between-country differences but also within-country change.
Findings
While the within-country contemporaneous network shows positive links for education, the temporal network shows significant lagged effects for all four dimensions on quality peace. The between-country network indicates significant direct effects of education and information, on average, and indirect effects of inclusion and engagement, on quality peace.
Originality/value
This approach demonstrates a novel application of multi-level time-series network analysis to explore the dynamic development of quality peace, capturing both stability and change. The analysis illustrates how youth peace-building dimensions impact quality peace in the macro-system globally. This investigation of quality peace thus illustrates that the science of peace does not necessitate violent conflict.
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Raheem Bux Soomro, Irfan Ali Mirani, Mirani Sajid Ali and Soomro Marvi
This paper aims to assess the impact of green purchasing behavior (GPB) of a young generation in Pakistan.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the impact of green purchasing behavior (GPB) of a young generation in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from students of different colleges affiliated with Shah Abdul Latif University from Sukkur and Larkana regions of Upper Sindh. A total of 400 questionnaires were administrated among students and 361 completed questionnaires were returned. A pen-and-paper method was applied to collect the data.
Findings
Model 1 revels that interpersonal influence and environmental knowledge were found positively related to GPB, whereas media and price were found positively but insignificantly related to GPB. Lastly, trust in green products was also found negatively and insignificantly related with GPB. Model 2 was used to test the moderating impact of price on the relationship between EA and GPB.
Practical implications
To promote GPB, government can play significant role by sponsoring environmental campaigns and environmental culture and these campaigns may include broadcasting promotional messages, distributing leaflets with utility bills, speeches in schools and colleges and advertisements with the help of printing and electronic sources.
Originality/value
Regarding green food purchase, this study’s results contribute to the literature by providing some theoretical contributions in literature. Green purchasing is so far a very new notion in Pakistan and therefore, literature on promotion of GPB is still lacking in the said country.
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